By: OrePulse

South Africa's Citrus Growers' Association (CGA) has called for stronger coordination across the country's ports ahead of next year's export season, saying genuine improvements are likely to take considerable time to achieve.

In a newsletter issued this week, the CGA said the industry needs to carry forward lessons from the current season into planning for the next. The association said it favors giving private companies a larger role in running rail and port logistics, while cautioning growers and exporters against expecting a quick turnaround.

The CGA said this year's experience showed that progress would be gradual, and that future planning needs to build in a slow pace of change and set better plans in place for all ports well before the next peak season arrives.

The association welcomed a new series of fortnightly meetings established at Durban's Gateway Terminal. It said the sessions give industries such as citrus exporters clearer insight into day-to-day operating conditions at the port, information the CGA said would help growers and shippers shape their own logistics planning around the export season.

The CGA also pointed to the possibility of continued disruption linked to tensions in the Middle East, noting that the conflict has already affected shipping during this export cycle. It advised that preparations for the season ahead should allow for the chance that the conflict, and the complications it has caused for international shipping, could drag on.

The association, which represents citrus growers and exporters across southern Africa, said it intends to keep pressing port authorities and logistics operators for better-coordinated planning in the months ahead of the next harvest.