Everything you need to know about the current situation in the Western Cape and the impact it has on shipping.
- The Western Cape had a record number of rain for this time of the year compared to the last decade. We grow our fruit in a Mediterranean climate where rainfall forms an essential part of the planned sustained future growth of our citrus.
- Regarding the supply-chain system, certain timing adjustments were made to specific vessels to accommodate for the weather, which is very typical for our sophisticated shipping program.
- The reality is we are working with a commodity that has an ever-changing life cycle and rainfall can change the timing of loading vessels as well as the picking of the fruit.
- The Citrusdal area, which is the main growing area of our product, faced more challenges due to the rainfall this season.
- This area was without electricity for a few days, which has since been restored.
- Access to certain roads and orchards was also a challenge last week, which has been fixed.
- We since have had some sunny days, and growers were able to pick a healthy amount of fruit.
- Our prediction is that we will be YTD slightly ahead of our estimated shipments by the end of this week, as well as the YTD figures of 2022.
- We entered the US market with limited volumes shipped on the MSC Shirley towards the end of May and slowly gained momentum towards the end of this month with more container vessels. From now on we will have weekly arrivals of conventional and/or container vessels into the Port of Philadelphia.
We pride ourselves in sharing accurate, real-time information we share with the industry, our effective and fast communication, and the relationships that form the backbone of our business.
We are only as good as our service providers and their respective teams. Our appreciation goes out to our shipping partners for listening and adjusting timelines to effectively move the amount of fruit in a timely manner through the system. This is all about being part of the conversation and taking your well-deserved seat at the table.
So, from our side, it is business as usual, and the show must go on! We are sticking to the original estimates we shared with the industry and will adjust in the future if needed. There is a healthy crop on its way to the US!
Click the video below to view the season's first fruit load on the MSC Shirley. We also included valuable perspective from our Board of Directors as we enter our 25th of shipping citrus to the U.S.!
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