South African fruit exporters to Europe look set to gain a fresh shipping option later this year with the launch of a new container line service by fruit industry veteran Carl van der Westhuizen and co-founder Ian Wicks.
The shipping line, currently known as African Feeder Lines but in the process of changing its name to MGB Shipping, is due to go into service in December. “It’ll be a weekly container service and we expect to kick off on 2 December depending on the volume of support we receive in week 49,” revealed Mr van der Westhuizen.
The provisional port rotation for the service is Cape Town, Tilbury, Rotterdam, Dakar and Cape Town.
While specialising in carrying South African fresh produce export cargoes to Europe, the service will collect European-sourced cargoes for discharge on the southbound leg. “We’ll focus on deciduous fruit cargoes `from South Africa` to start with but as we move into the citrus deal, the service will shift northwards to Durban,” explained Mr van der Westhuizen,
The service will include modern vessels equipped with 360 40ft container reefer plugs and dry cargo capacity of 200 20ft containers, he noted. And with its rapid transit times and competitive rates, Mr van der Westhuizen believes African Feeder Lines/MGB Shipping can capture around 10 per cent of the market.
“Our primary aim is to provide a mid-week alternative to the traditional conventional shipments,” he told Fruitnet.com. “Since such a large proportion of this country’s GDP is generated through seafreight exports, South African shippers would by and large dearly love to see indigenous lines evolve rather than remain beholden to overseas shipping lines.”
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