— calls for urgent privatisation to protect exports
South Africa’s apple and pear export industry is sounding the alarm over mounting losses caused by inefficiencies at the port of Cape Town, estimating that delays and logistical bottlenecks have cost the sector around R1 billion in 2024 alone.
Yesterday (August 11, 2025), the Western Cape Department of Mobility met with Two-a-Day, one of South Africa’s leading apple and pear packing and marketing cooperatives, and its logistics partner Link Supply Chain Management, for a strategic discussion and site visit aimed at tackling the logistical challenges affecting the fruit export industry. Industry role players warned that without urgent intervention — including the fast-tracking of the port’s privatisation — the country risks losing hard-won market share in key global markets.
“We work in a complex, time-sensitive value chain. If a vessel to Europe, the United Kingdom, or the Far East is missed, the sale is gone. You don’t get a second chance to deliver on time in a programme-driven market,” said Roelf Pienaar, managing director of Tru-Cape Fruit Marketing. “Logistics is the single biggest risk for us right now. If we can’t get our product out, everything else — from on-farm innovation to market development — is compromised.”
Chris Petzer, Two-a-Day’s operations director, explained that port delays often force the business to divert containers to Port Elizabeth at significant cost, simply to keep the supply chain moving and avoid halting harvest and packing operations.
“It’s not sustainable, but sometimes it’s the only option to prevent greater losses,” he said.
While the port’s efficiency is slightly improving, Chris Knoetze, managing director of Link Supply Chain Management, a fourth-party logistics provider owned by several of the Western Cape’s leading fruit exporting companies, including Two-a-Day and Tru-Cape Fruit Marketing, noted although crane productivity has improved, it is still throttling exports. A more effective port with higher productivity will attract more vessels and services, expand capacity, and give more reliable shipping options to various export markets.
“Given several interventions, like Transnet’s appointment and changes at senior management level, the repair and maintenance of equipment, solving personnel matters, focusing on operational improvement and capital investment in new rubber tyre gantry cranes (RTGs) in Cape Town Container Terminal, we should expect to see a step change in productivity to at least twenty gross crane movements per hour (GCH) or more in the coming months. However, the process is still too slow and far removed from the 33 GCH reported by Transnet in November 2012,” explains Chris.
“When port operations are disrupted, it impacts product quality, increases costs, and damages our credibility with overseas buyers,” Knoetze said.
Knoetze stressed that inefficiencies have cost the apple and pear industry in the Western Cape an estimated R1 billion in 2024 through additional storage, trucking, and plug-in costs, as well as missed market opportunities when vessels bypass Cape Town.
“We urgently need to fast-track the privatisation of the Cape Town terminal to restore competitiveness.”
Government’s response
The Department of Mobility confirmed that it is actively pursuing measures to address these constraints. Corrine Gallant, deputy director-general at the Western Cape’s Mobility Department, outlined existing initiatives, including the port of Cape Town’s Logistics Development Project Management Unit and plans to revitalise rail infrastructure.
“We are working on both the landside and waterside inefficiencies,” Gallant said. “This includes improving road freight safety and capacity, restoring rail services like the Overberg line, and ensuring that the Western Cape’s needs are heard at a national level. We cannot afford more costs in the chain — our focus is on solutions that remove bottlenecks and protect jobs.”
Industry representatives stressed that time is critical. Delays in decision-making, they warned, could see global shipping lines bypass Cape Town in favour of more efficient ports, delaying fruit by one to two weeks and undermining the Western Cape’s competitiveness.
“The farmers, pack-houses, and exporters are investing in efficiency every day,” Gerhard van Heerden, director at Link Supply Chain Management, said. “Now we need the same urgency and commitment at the port — because without it, the entire value chain is at risk.”
This was echoed by Isaac Sileku, Western Cape Minister of Mobility, who emphasised the need for urgency and structured collaboration with Transnet:
“We cannot afford to be reactive. We must have formal agreements and mechanisms in place so that when bottlenecks arise, we know exactly which button to press. Speed of execution is critical — our farmers and exporters cannot wait years for solutions.”
A path forward
The session concluded with agreement on the need for:
- Faster execution of port and rail improvement projects.
- Formal industry-government forums with direct access to decision-makers.
- Targeted short-, medium-, and long-term actions to resolve both “low-hanging fruit” issues and systemic challenges.
The Western Cape apple and pear industry contributes significantly to local employment and the provincial economy. Stakeholders agreed that improving Cape Town’s port efficiency is essential not only for sustaining the sector but also for enhancing South Africa’s competitiveness in global fruit markets.
For more information, please contact Lucille Botha at lucilleb@tru-cape.co.za or visit www.tru-cape.com. Follow Tru-Cape on X (@TruCapeFruit), Facebook (@Tru-Cape Fruit Marketing), TikTok (@trucape), and Instagram (@trucapefruit).
