The South African fresh produce export trade has high hopes that a new South African shipping company, which was launched in Cape Town last night, will bring about new competition in seafreight rates on the route between South Africa and Europe.
MBG Shipping, described by founders Carl van der Westhuizen and Ian Wicks as a 'proudly South African registered and constituted company', will launch its weekly service between South Africa and Europe on 3 December, with the first vessel arriving in Europe in time for the pre-Christmas market.
The service is set to call at Tilbury (UK) and Rotterdam (the Netherlands), with the possibility of Liverpool (UK) being added to the schedule, and various ports of load and discharge within Europe will be served via Rotterdam.
The second vessel will leave Cape Town on 16 December and will be followed by weekly sailings thereafter. 'The vessels' port rotation will follow the seasonal fruit exports on the South African coast, introducing Port Elizabeth and Durban port calls accordingly,' said Mr Van der Westhuizen.
MBG’s launch in Cape Town drew wide interest from the fresh produce industry and, according to some, has already contributed towards downward pressure on freight rates on the South Africa-Europe route. 'It is vitally important for the future of the South African fresh produce export industry that this venture succeeds,' said one industry leader.
The high level of freight rates on this route has long been a bone of contention, with growers and exporters claiming that there is no justification to rates being so much higher than those paid by their counterparts in South America. A benchmark study, which was published by the country’s Fresh Produce Exporters’ Forum (FPEF), claimed that South African fresh produce exporters were paying more for seafreight than those in other major Southern Hemisphere supply countries.
The study, which is part of a comprehensive programme to encourage innovation in the fresh fruit and vegetable industry, looked closely at logistics, cold chain management, technology and infrastructure within the sector, concluding that the high cost of ocean transport put South African companies at a disadvantage compared with exporters in Chile and New Zealand.
Speaking at the launch, co-founder Ian Wicks was reluctant to speculate on the support the company would receive from South African exporters. 'These are new opportunities which the South African industry should use and we will have to wait and see how things develop.'
While everyone in the South African industry seems to have welcomed the entry of the new group because of the competition it would bring to the existing shipping companies, it is clear than many are adopting a wait-and-see attitude.
'The present players are extremely powerful and they will certainly not make it easy for the newcomer,' said a leading exporter. 'We are all waiting in anticipation to see what will happen, but all of us feel that it will be good for the South African export sector to have more competition in shipping.'
A company statement read: 'MBG Shipping brings the well identified additional reefer tonnage tothe South African fruit exporter, with a market related competitiverate structure.' MBG has alsoestablished agents in the United Kingdom, Bahr Behrend Agencies Ltd,and in Rotterdam, where F.A Voigt & Co. B.V. will represent them.
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