User-friendly technology smoothes the flow of perishable exports

When it comes to perishable transport, the devil is in the detail. It’s all about understanding the specialised aspects of the perishables industry, says Sydney Ramoorthy of forwarding and clearing software provider Core Freight Systems. “An example of this is our ongoing refinement of the generation of the phytosanitary certificate, which is required to accompany the perishable goods to ensure acceptance at major delivery destinations around world,” he told FTW. “Who would have known that printing the place of origin of produce as ‘South Africa’ would invalidate the certificate, unless prefixed by ‘Republic of’!? Similarly there is a specialised requirement to record certain details against containers including, for example, information relating to ‘vents’, ‘atmospheric control’ and ‘temperature codes’. This data is used to issue pertinent instructions to the transporters or shipping lines direct from the CoreFreight application,” he told FTW. The perishables export business is reported to be worth in excess of R15 billion annually to South Africa – and although this amount is dwarfed by the minerals and metals categories associated with our mining industry, it remains a significant contributor to the local economy, as both a source of foreign currency and domestic employment, said Ramoorthy. “We have an increasing number of clients who operate in this sector,” he added. “The world is an increasingly competitive place and within this environment we need to ensure that as a nation we perform not only in terms of the quality of the product, but the efficiency of the supply chain used to deliver the produce to consumers around the world. “We believe the CoreFreight application contributes to this by providing a reliable mechanism to facilitate South African exports from the Customs perspective, and the management of this process.” Customer benefits from the Core Freight application range from the link to the NPA for the electronic submission of cargo dues, to compliance with Sars’ bill of entry and Automated Cargo Management messaging via EDI. “Client invoicing is facilitated by a simple rates set-up which accommodates the auto generation of charges specific to a particular customer,” he said. “The comprehensive import and export system is presented in a modern logical windows-based format that provides not only for the production of all the pertinent documentation but ensures a smooth workflow for both the individual user and the employer organisation, whether a large multinational agent or local specialist operator.” INSERT: ‘The perishables export business is reported to be worth in excess of R15 billion annually to South Africa.’ CAPTION: Sydney Ramoorthy … ‘It’s all about understanding the specialised aspects of the perishables industry.’