The on-going congestion in South African port terminals has become a huge crisis as a result of equipment shortages from all shipping lines. As a result of the limited containers, shipping lines are now utilising containers to markets where they earn higher margins. Some shipping lines have stopped shipping fresh produce from South Africa to the Far East, while some shipping lines only accept a limited number of containers to the Middle East.

Cold stores are running at full capacity as they are not able to get their fruit loaded into containers fast enough. This has a major impact on apples and pears currently being packed but for more sensitive commodities such as stone fruit and the tail-end of the table grape season, this is a major crisis as the fruit needs to be shipped out as soon as possible.

• Citrus
• Pome
• Grape, Stone & Kiwi Fruit
• India & Bangladesh
• PPECB Statistics

The forecasted estimate for Citrus is 160-161 million cartons as follows:

Grapefruit        :  15-16 million cartons

Lemons            :  30 million cartons

Navels              :  26.2 million cartons

Valencias          :  58 million cartons

Soft Citrus        :  30 million cartons

Market update: The GCC countries are supplied with lemons from Egypt, China, South Africa and Turkey, however South African volumes out of the Northern areas were delayed as a result of rain but the volumes will pick up going forward. 

The GCC countries are supplied with oranges from Egypt and Mandarins from Spain and Morocco.

In general the market is slow and no high demand for any commodity. 

Grapes

The Hex River has been packing huge volumes over the past 2 weeks and cold stores are running at full capacity.  The shortage of containers is causing a huge problem in getting the last of the season’s grapes exported.  The Hex River has 2 weeks left of packing.

Shipped YTD – South Africa

Grapes – Middle East –  decrease of 17%  on cumulative volumes shipped to date compared  to 2020 season.

Market update: In Saudi Arabia, there has been a slight decline in the price level on Grapes from South Africa.

Stone fruit

There is still a high volume of late season plums that needs to be shipped.  Although some of the Angelino plums will be smart fresh to be stored and shipped later, the cold stores are already running at full capacity and need to continue shipping especially with varieties that are more sensitive.

Shipped YTD from South Africa

Plum inspections passed for export YTD by the end of week 9 was up by 35% and Nectarines 25% compared to the same period last season. 

Plums – Middle East – increase of 30% on cumulative volumes shipped to date compared to the 2020 season.

Nectarines – Middle East – decrease of 7% on cumulative volumes shipped to date compared to the 2020 season.

In General: The late variety Nectarines (August Red) had a record season of 1.1 million cartons.  All Nectarines for the season will be picked by the end of this week.

In Dubai,  there has been a significant drop in price levels for Peaches and Nectarines from week 9 – 10.  The GCC countries remain under pressure for all stone fruit varieties.

India

Oranges are still struggling to find traction and good movement. Pear market is stable. It appears as though the whole Southern Hemisphere is shipping Apples to India now that the USA is not. Prices from supply side are dropping daily. Most countries have shipped more than double last years volume to India. Container equipment shortages worldwide are also causing countries/exporters to ship fruit to any country for which they can get equipment for. We expect an oversupply of apples in India from the beginning of April.

Bangladesh

South African Gala varieties are starting to trickle into the market and achieve some rather impressive prices on the high quality spec. Lower quality fruit however is selling at significantly lower prices.  There is very good demand for Goldens currently with an empty market, however these volumes are set to make arrival in coming weeks.

Shipping lines are rapidly increasing rates by means of congestion & imbalance surcharges to Bangladesh, or just no longer accepting bookings to Chittagong altogether (or both!) – whilst reefer equipment availability (lack thereof) is an entirely different challenge in its’ own right.