en.Wedoany.com Reported - The Western Cape provincial government stated this week that it is working with Transnet and industry stakeholders to improve the operational performance of the Port of Cape Town ahead of the peak export season, aiming to prevent a repeat of last season's port issues that led to a large volume of table grapes being diverted to other provinces.

According to the South African Table Grape Industry Association (SATI), congestion and operational disruptions at the Port of Cape Town last export season reduced its share of table grape exports from 90% in the previous season to 76%. Meanwhile, the share handled by ports in the Eastern Cape rose from 6% to 21%. Statistics show that approximately 55,000 tons of table grapes from the Western Cape were ultimately diverted through Eastern Cape ports. In a joint statement, SATI, Hortgro, and the Fresh Produce Exporters' Forum (FPEF) estimated that these operational disruptions resulted in additional logistics costs and revenue losses of around 3.2 billion rand for the table grape industry.

Ivan Meyer, Western Cape Minister of Agriculture, Economic Development, and Tourism, stated that last season's delays and diversions imposed an unsustainable financial burden on producers and exporters. Meyer noted that the costly diversion of agricultural products to other provinces cannot be allowed to happen again, as each delay and diversion erodes farm profitability, threatens export competitiveness, and puts jobs across the entire agricultural value chain at risk.

The Western Cape government has identified four priority intervention areas to improve port reliability for the upcoming export season, including enhancing equipment reliability, strengthening workforce and operational management, improving communication among stakeholders, and implementing contingency measures to reduce operational disruptions.