Grapes Namibia

GoReefers has started moving the first of the Namibian grape shipments of the season in what is expected to be a bumper crop.

Amongst the first shipments are containers from Capespan Namibia who appointed the South African service provider as its logistics partner for the season.

In the past, the grape volumes of Capespan Namibia were handled by Capespan’s own Logistics Division. However, recent decisions on the future development of Capespan Namibia and its partnership with the Namibian Grape Company (NGC) is reported to having given Capespan Namibia more independence in terms of marketing and logistics.

Andre Vermaak, managing director of Capespan Namibia, has confirmed that Capespan Namibia has started packing the first Flame Seedless and Early Sweet grapes of the season.

“The first containers will leave Cape Town next week and will be in the UK and European markets around 9 December. In total we will ship nearly 500 containers with the assistance of GoReefers,” he says.

Capespan Namibia recently successfully concluded negotiations with the Namibian Grape Company (NGC) to extend its existing management and marketing from 2018 until 2028.Vermaak said the deal means that Capespan would finance and implement an additional 114ha of table grapes and water supply to its existing 360ha of table grapes at Assenkehr in southern Namibia.

“The benefits of this agreement reach far and wide. Not only will it be significant to Capespan, but of greater importance is the value to Namibia and its people,' Vermaak confirms.

'Since the initial agreement, Capespan has proved that the model is successful,' he outlines.'Despite replanting about 45ha of table grape vineyards every year since 2008, export volumes had increased from 1.2m to 1.6m cartons during this period. Furthermore, we’re intent on establishing the NGC as a large-scale table grape producer, affirming Namibian grapes as a global brand because of the outstanding quality and sought-after pre-Christmas timing.”

Delena Engelbrecht, managing director of GoReefers, says the company will this year handle more than 1,000 containers of grapes from Namibia.

“This covers the largest proportion of the Namibian grape business and our confidence of developing our business there is clearly indicated by the fact that we now also have our own offices in the country.'

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