The South African fruit export industry has broken its silence on the two week-long transport workers' strike, which is causing serious disruption to exports through the country's container port terminals, and has demanded urgent steps from the government to end the strike.
In a letter written by Fruit South Africa, the organisation representing all the fruit export industries, to Barbara Hogan, minister of public enterprises, and transport minister Sibusiso Ndebele, the industry said it is haemorrhaging financially as a result of the Transnet strike.
'The financial losses in our industry are going to be staggering,' said Anton Rabe, chairperson of Fruit South Africa.
The organisation said its losses relate not only to income, but also the loss of its customers.
'Our international customers are in no mood to tolerate non-delivery of product because of a badly managed relationship between a monopolistic parastatal and its workforce. As a fruit industry we are seriously running a risk of losing international marketing programmes which will be taken up with glee by our competitors,' the letter read.
Fruit SA said that once a customer is lost, it takes years to regain their confidence again.
The fruit industry employes 460,000 people on a full-time basis in rural areas, and their livelihoods are at stake.
'They have 2m dependants. If this strike is not stopped, there will be serious ramifications in the form of massive job losses and decline in the livelihoods of many people. Already the most vulnerable rural workers (seasonal workers) are being laid off,' the letter continued.
Fruit South Africa is also demanding that Transnet pay for losses incurred during the strike, including a new congestion surcharge which shipping line Maersk introduced on Wednesday. Maersk advised shippers that an additional port congestion charge of US$150 per FEU container would come into effect immediately
'As an industry, we are calling on all exporters to forward these congestion surcharges, and all other tangible losses they suffer as a result of this strike to Transnet for full compensation. We believe such losses must be recouped from Transnet considering that it has, as a parastatal organization, insisted on its now ill-fated monopolistic position in the container terminals of South African ports,' the letter said.
Fruit South Africa said that by not allowing other container terminal operators to compete in the country's ports had now resulted in exports being held to ransom Transnet.
'The fruit industry, in consultation with other industries, is now considering its legal position in demanding compensation for its losses, as the situation is now becoming untenable.'
Fruit South Africa is demanding that Transnet settle its dispute immediately with the unions, and normalise business through its ports. Secondly, the organisation believes Transnet must completely re-think its monopoly of South Africa's transport systems.
With the strike now two weeks old, the port terminal in Durban has come to a complete standstill. Some containers have been uplifted in Port Elizabeth and Cape Town, but major disruptions have been reported.
Conventional reefer shipments have been largely unaffected and the conventional reefer terminals have also loaded additional ships that were chartered in to help alleviate the crisis.
GoReefers Executive Delena Engelbrecht said the company has been involved with the chartering of three additional vessels.
'The problem is to get hold of conventional reefer vessels at short notice. They also come at a considerable price tag,' she said.
Ms Engelbrecht said Maputu in Mozambique continues to be an option for citrus exporters and, on the other side of the continent, Walvis Bay in Namibia is an alternative, but fruit needs to be transported an additional 2000km to get there.
