The congestion in South African port terminals has not changed due to equipment shortages and getting containers shipped is still a problem. Due to the global shortage of equipment and increasing cost to reposition equipment into South Africa,  shipping lines have increased their freights rates and applied an EBS Surcharge (Reefer Eqipement imbalance surcharge) and a congestion surcharge.  Depots are running at full capacity as they are not able to load out containers fast enough.

The Market in the GCC countries remains slow with a low demand for most commodities. New curfew times in Kuwait has been implemented from the Government starting on the 07^th March for 1 month from 17h00-05h00. Since the 24 February, Kuwait has closed it’s land and sea borders with the exception of shipping operations . Different curfew times and rules are applied to the different countries in the Middle East, however most countries have closed entertainment facilities and restaurants are either closed or only operating at 50% capacity and large gatherings are prohibited. 

In Saudi Arabia, authorities have imposed strict regulations on the importing of goods from other countries. Customers need to first register and obtain authorisation before importing items/commodities into the country and this regulation is until further notice.

In the UAE, they have announced the extension of COVID-19 safety measures until the start of Ramadan in mid-April, to curb the spread of the virus.

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

Weather permitting, lemon packing should start picking up from week 10 onwards in the Northern areas of  South Africa..

Market update: In Dubai , the first lemons from South Africa has made arrival in the market.  Higher price levels for South African lemons followed by Turkey in the market.  Downward trend on price lemons for Egyptian lemons as they compete with both South Africa and Turkey in the market..

Grapes

The South African Table Grape Industry (SATI) has announced that the country could exceed 70 million cartons for the first time in history, however final export volumes to be released at a later date.. 

Shipped YTD – South Africa

The market is currently supplied with Grapes from South Africa and India. Price levels on white grapes from South Africa continue to hold at higher price levels while India competes with South Africa with lower price levels.

Stone fruit

Market update: There has been an increase in plum arrivals to the GCC countries .  South Africa has a bigger Plum crop this season and are up by +47% on all plum varieties compared to last season. The remainder of the tail-end of the volume for the season will be distributed predominantly to the UK and  European markets with some volume going to the  Middle East.

India

It looks like this year will be dictated by equipment and shipping shortages and not by Covid. Those that are lucky enough to get equipment will survive. India market is still good on Apples. Pears are maintaining and citrus still struggling. We notice that Southern Hemisphere countries are shipping more apples to India than last season. This is due to the USA not shipping anymore and importers now supplementing the USA supply with SH supply.

Bangladesh

Whilst the market in Bangladesh continues to trade, concerns around supply to market become the primary focus.

Idle time for vessels caused by congestion at Chittagong harbour makes it a less than preferred destination, tying up both vessels and equipment for extended periods of time, combined with the global container shortage exacerbating the issue.

The demand for South African apples is good, although shipping options are dwindling.

Mandarins should start to see some recovery with the supply from Bhutan coming to an end.