Build up of citrus at Durban port
Justin Chadwick, CEO of the association, said this was due to the delayed approval of the registered list for China which has resulted in a build up of stock for this market, also system failure with Navis at the Durban Container Terminals has resulted in difficulty in exporting of containers, the need to inspect more fruit at port due to the 4 day EU threshold being breached due to these factors and the increased volumes of lemons and grapefruit to the port of Durban have all contributed to the situation.
So far the total production from the North is up by 900,000 cartons and citrus diverted away from Maputo is heading for Durban which has resulted in some delays and capacity issues this past week.
The FPT terminal has requested that citrus railings not be delivered to FPT for the remainder of the week. This will relieve pressure to some extent as will the fact that the China fruit will now be moving out, and loading of the first ship for Japan commenced on Thursday.
Citrus volume diverted from Maputo this year will now be entering Durban increasing the number of trucks to be offloaded and containers to be packed. Understandably capacity will be put under pressure as a result of this. Growers have been advised to check with their export agent and cold store to ensure that their fruit (and trucks) will not be unnecessarily delayed when arriving in the port. The 4 day EU threshold should be achieved as far as possible to reduce the impact and cost of unnecessary inspections at ports cold stores.