After a week of heavy rains and flooding, the second conventional South African refrigerator ship carrying citrus fruits from the Western Cape region, whose campaign will last until October, departed on June 20 to the US market.
The storms brought citrus harvesting and packaging to a halt. The storms caused damage to road infrastructure that affected the citrus sector and other industries, disrupting fruit transport to ports, and leaving most of the Olifant's River citrus region without direct access to Cape Town's port.
A key road connection through Mitchell's Pass, near Ceres, was closed and fruit trucks from both Citrusdal and Ceres were diverted by the N1 motorway to reach Cape Town.
A spokesman for the Roads Department of the Western Cape Province said Mitchell's Pass, a key road for fruit and vegetable producers in the Ceres region, suffered severe damage requiring substantial repairs. The Western Cape Government has estimated that storm damage could range from 750 million to 1,000 million rands.
Meanwhile, farmers in citrus regions have reported that the weather conditions have improved and that they expect to resume harvesting later this week.
According to a spokesman for Anlin Shipping, which coordinates the transportation program to the United States, the third vessel was already outside the port and there was enough fruit to start loading it immediately. Expectations are that a fourth vessel will be loaded in mid-July.
Source: simfruit.cl