Minister, Transnet and industry address fresh produce challenges at Cape Town port

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JIMMY MOYAHA: About a month ago, towards the end of June, possibly the start of July, we had a conversation with the SA Table Grape Industry, looking at the challenges they’ve  been facing with ports like the Port of Cape Town and the impact on export productivity.

Just today, the minister in the Department of Transport has been engaging with Transnet and other industry stakeholders around how we address some of the bottlenecks that have been plaguing the Port of Cape Town and other ports. We’re going to be taking a look at this in a bit more detail once again with the chief executive officer of the South African Table Grape industry, Mecia Petersen.

She joins me on the line again to take a look at this matter. Mecia, lovely having you back on the show. Thanks so much for taking the time.

I understand you were in the meeting with Minister [Barbara] Creecy and the other stakeholders, taking a look at how we deal with the challenges that confront the Port of Cape Town, a port that is important to not only your association, but to other exporters in the country. Tell us about that meeting and just give us a sense of what was on the agenda.

MECIA PETERSEN: Good evening, Jimmy. Thank you.

Today was an important conversation. I think it is important that we start from a point centred around how we work together better as role players to achieve more streamlined operations at the ports and ultimately get fruit into  the market within desired windows.

So with that there are various engagements that happen at different levels. Today was a ministerial engagement, and I believe that’s important. We had the minister with senior Transnet leadership there, and it’s very good to create an understanding and accountability at different levels.

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What I can share is that there were three commitments that came from the minister’s desk today.

Number one, in the immediate term we will establish a stakeholder forum with execution authority to promote integration.

This forum will be focused on the gate, the stack and the vessel, which are three key components at the port operations. The idea is to support agile decision-making. It will comprise Transnet port terminals, shipping lines and freight forwarders.

Then, in terms of season readiness – quite an important [component] for us in the grape context – it was agreed that there will be a strategy in place to effectively utilise the wider port networks, including those outside Cape Town.

What that means is proactively planning to divert cargo to other ports, which helps us mitigate factors that constrain efficiency – such as weather.

Thirdly, over the longer term, Transnet will have a look at its digital agenda with the aim of creating platforms that can give us greater visibility of shared data. This is important to drive data-driven decisions across the value chain.

JIMMY MOYAHA: These sound like very important improvements and commitments that have been made here. Mecia, if we are looking at these commitments and we’re looking at where we currently find ourselves with the challenges that we’ve been looking to address, where do some of the risks still remain outside of these commitments?

MECIA PETERSEN: Look, there are  quite a lot of plans in motion, but they will still need to be implemented operationally –and there’s a way to go for that.

In my opinion, some of the biggest risks that we face, especially during the deciduous season when we have peak volumes, [include] unpredictable weather. Think about climate change, which is becoming more and more evident and relevant.

Second to that is labour planning.  And then, third, equipment reliability and breakdowns.

So in terms of those risks, the port did outline plans around these today.

So [in regard to] labour, they have something in place to avoid the absenteeism that was prevalent in the previous season. You need that because you don’t want to have fewer teams than are required. So with that, they’re employing more people.

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They share that they have recruited and they’re busy with more recruitment.

Their plan is to get back-up operational staff from PE [Gqeberha] and Durban to help in Cape Town. That should make a difference.

And then in terms of equipment, there are  a number of things ongoing with some new equipment that is being ordered, working with the original equipment manufacturers in terms of fixing things that need to be fixed.

In terms of the unpredictable weather, that’s something no one can foresee. But this is where the diversion strategy becomes extremely important –  especially during the peak deciduous season.

In the grape context we saw a big increase of diversions via the Eastern Cape ports last season, and I do expect to see that again this season.

JIMMY MOYAHA: Mecia, last time you and I spoke, we spoke about some of the export involving highly perishable products. I want to take a look at whether or not that has been addressed.

Do we have any special measures that might be considered at this stage, or that have been mentioned at this stage around how we deal with those highly perishable products – especially where they might have strict international delivery deadlines? How do we deal with that, because that could be more time-sensitive than perhaps [for] some of the other exporters – understanding, of course, that by and large a lot of our agricultural exports are perishable by their very nature.

MECIA PETERSEN: Yes, Jimmy. Grapes definitely fall into that category.

Highly perishable stone fruit also falls into that category; for example, plums – extremely perishable.

And I think this is where planning and streamlining operations become really important.

Typically in port operation there are three key areas that you need to look at. Those are the gate, the stack and the vessel.

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If any one of those stops working, it causes a bottleneck or a backlog somewhere else down the line – and what you ideally want is to keep fluidity. So at the gate there shouldn’t be long queues of trucks.

Trucks that have an appointment should come in and it should be a streamlined, easy process – offload your cargo and leave.

The stack should be loaded and offloaded in good time so that the vessel can sail.

And that’s what we need to make sure of – that perishable products maintain the cold chain; that’s key – and that the ship sails on time with all the cargo that should be packed on that ship.

That is how we ensure that we keep our market windows and our commitments with our programmes.

I know those are a lot of big words, but the conversations today centred around how the port can streamline the operations inside the port, and how industry can support those with the parts that that we manage, the value chain outside of the ports.

We all really need to do our bit to see an improvement this season.

JIMMY MOYAHA: It’s all about working together to ensure that we are able to access these new markets and maintain our competitive advantage in these markets if we are to expand our agricultural sector into the global landscape.

We’ll have to leave the conversation on that note. The chief executive officer of the South African Table Grape Industry, Mecia Petersen, joined us to take a look at the meetings held with the Department of Transport and Transnet on how we can improve logistical infrastructure to get agricultural exports into the world.

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