Posted on May, 15, 2024 at 10:23 am
While South Africa is a major agricultural producer, the majority of its food exports currently bypass the African continent. This was unveiled during a webinar about the transport and logistics industry as a catalyst for the movement of goods across Africa.
Experts explored how more needs to be done to support the transport of agricultural products, especially on the African continent where there is a great need for food supply amid ongoing droughts.
The railway system plays a vital role in Africa’s transportation infrastructure, contributing significantly to the continent’s economy, society, and development. Calls were made to speed up investment in the railway system across the African continent.
Abilash Kunjupilla, the managing director at Imperial Clearing and Forwarding South Africa, explained that South Africa as an agricultural provider probably does not have most of its exports going to Africa, especially from a food perspective, however, some fruits like pomes like apples and pears, potatoes, and onions go into Africa.
“The latter does not really need a lot of cold chain, but the likes of apples and soft citrus do. What we are seeing in the agricultural industry right now is that there is a big shift happening from our traditional exporters selling into the northwest continent and Europe, and mostly Asia,” he said.
Kunjupilla said the agricultural industry is a growing market in the Middle East and other African countries. He and his team are more involved in the airfreight of fruit and vegetables every week in Nairobi.
In silos, he added, there is enough protection for cold chain transport within the Southern African cluster.
“But if we start looking at areas north of South Africa like Zimbabwe and Zambia, which have a significant amount of agricultural produce being made. Most of that is for local consumption and not really for cross-border exports besides the non-cold chain commodities like maize and grain.
“For us, it is mostly to try and figure out how to bring rail capability from inland countries to across all the African ports,” he said.
Source: Food for Mzansi