Leadership at Transnet’s port terminals business will meet with leaders in the deciduous fruit industry to discuss contingency plans to prevent the devastating impact of strike action on the upcoming grape and stone fruit seasons.
This comes as a strike by two unions kicked into full swing this week.
The United National Transport Union (UNTU) and the South African Transport and Allied Workers Union (Satawu) have downed tools with unions demanding double-digit wage increases.
Also read: City of Cape Town calls for negotiations to end Transnet strike
Transnet maintains to be mindful of compensation costs, though it has revised its offer to a maximum range of 4.5% to 5% across the board.
In a statement, Transnet said that Port Terminals’ leadership in the Western Cape met with members of the deciduous fruit industry, namely Berries SA, Hortgro, and the chair of the NAMC on Tuesday.
“The deciduous fruit season is expected to fully commence at the end of October 2022. Transnet is working closely with industry to ensure that the perishable products, along with other cargo with a limited shelf-life, are prioritised at the ports,” the Transnet statement said.
Agriculture economist Wandile Sihlobo said products that dominated export activity were citrus, maize, apples and pears, wine, grapes, nuts and berries, wool, soybean oil, apricots, cherries, and peaches.
“Not all these exports are facilitated through Transnet,” he told News24. “Still, the point is that the fourth quarter of each year is a high export activity quarter.”
“Given that agricultural production has generally been resilient, we expect that there are substantial volumes of exports of various products scheduled for this month.”
According to a 2022 annual report by the Foreign Agriculture Service and the Global Agriculture Information Network, South Africa was set for a record pome fruit and table grape production in the marketing year 2021/22, but this could potentially be undermined by Russia’s military occupation in Ukraine.
Transnet stated that the entity wanted to establish a joint integrated planning team with the industry “to mitigate any further delays”.
“Transnet continues to work closely with the shipping lines and industry broadly to manage the current situation and remains fully committed to moving customers’ cargo as efficiently as possible,” read the statement.
Exporters Western Cape called on Transnet to resolve the wage negotiations speedily. Exporters Western Cape chair Terry Gale said every single port not operating had a significant knock-on effect on exporters.
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