The status quo is unchanged for the moment at South African ports where a strike has been ongoing for over two weeks. The industry had from the start expected it would run for at least a week, and has been making plans to reduce their losses although some growers have had to stoically accept the idea of some quayside containers not plugged in.
At the Durban Container Terminal there are tens of thousands of import containers in stack and a significant backlog that will have to be cleared when the strike formally ends which could take weeks before the situation stabilises.
The fruit industry has been eyeing Walvis Bay (Namibia), and the new Maputo Fruit Terminal is also an option. Neither terminal has cold facilities but for a container with a Genset that doesn't pose a problem.
Some blueberry exporters were on the point of going that route, but the news of a first breakthrough in the negotiations has convinced them to wait.
Cape Town Container Terminal (photo: Druid007 Dreamstime.com)
Blueberry growers have had to continue picking and storing pallets meant to have been gone on a vessel already, in cold stores where storage costs mount.
Meetings between Transnet and the fruit industry continue to keep the latter apprised of the state of negotiations.
The union which first declared a strike after wage negotiations had stalled for months has accepted the latest wage offer while the second labour union is apparently still holding out.
News that one union had accepted the wage offer was welcomed by the chairperson of BerriesZA with great relief.
“I must however stress that we are by no means out of the woods and the next 10 to 14 days will be absolutely critical in returning our exports to normal. We need to ensure that priority is given to perishable products and especially berries and early stone fruit as this is critical to the sustainability of these industries,” Justin Mudge said.
"There's no silver lining"
South Africa’s absence in Europe simply gives more room for Peru whose blueberry volumes dwarf that of South Africa.
"There's no silver lining to this," remarks a blueberry industry manager.
The blueberry price will come under pressure and there are producers who could fold if they don't get good payments this season, coming on the back of two previous difficult years.
Last year the blueberry season was also bedevilled by logistics challenges; ironically now that Cape Town Container Terminal has enough cranes to run three berths, the people to make it happen aren't there.
The industry is very concerned at the ripple effect of job losses that yet another difficult season could have on some blueberry operations.
Unexpected volumes in cold stores reduce maintenance time
Cold stores, where blueberries that had been packed for vessels that couldn’t load, are on the amount of pallets they have been loading out 75% down to last year.
"Fortunately it’s the end of the citrus season and we didn’t have high volumes," says Western Cape cold store manager. "If this were three or four weeks ago, we’d have big problems. Luckily we had capacity and we could accommodate the blueberries."
This is normally the only quiet month in the year at this cold store, before the grape season starts. "During this month my staff have to take their leave and in this month we do major maintenance. What the strike has done, is that the rooms are full of fruit. Now there’s no time for training and leave. This is the spinoff that others don’t realise. Because we’re so busy our maintenance programme is very intense, to have it done before the grape season. If the strike ends now and we can resume loading out, we can make up for lost time."