Yen for citrus kickstarts new terminal

TERRY HUTSON
DURBAN’S NEW fruit terminal, Maydon Wharf Fruit Terminal (MFT), was inaugurated with a flourish last week (4 June) when the first of tens of thousands of pallets of South African citrus destined for the Japanese market was loaded into the NYK Reefers’ ship Procyon.
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The modern warehouse has facilities for 4 800 pallets under rapid cooling for steri-citrus and a further 1 500 pallets of conventional cooling, combined with the dedicated use of berth 7 on Maydon Wharf. MFT, a part of Commercial Cold Storage, is a joint venture involving the Oceana Group and SA Port Operations (Sapo).
The terminal, which provides employment for up to 80 people during the six-month citrus season, also forms part of the overall transformation of Maydon Wharf into a modern, up-to-date cargo handling facility.
According to Willem Visagie, managing director of Commercial Cold Storage, MFT has been ten years in the planning and eventually came together as a joint venture involving Sapo because the J/V route made good business sense. The deal also involved an exchange of adjacent properties opposite berths 6 and 7 and an investment of about R60 million to develop the site, which is served by road and rail.
The terminal will handle other products such as rice during the off-season. Visagie told FTW that the Oceana Group also had an interest in expanding operations at Port Elizabeth and was watching developments at Maputo closely.
Ten NYK Reefer ships, all represented by Portco Ships Agency, are scheduled to call at Maydon Wharf 7 this season along with other reefer ships of other companies.