Export express steams ahead
2009-03-19
COLD storage giant, ColdHarvest, has launched a major green project, in the form of railway transportation. The third load of fruit, mainly table grapes, recently left the company’s doorstep at Oosbosch Street in Paarl by rail, heading straight for Cape Town harbour by rail instead of truck. ColdHarvest believes that not only does their product benefit from this smooth form of transportation, but it also entails easier access to Cape Town Harbour without traffic delays. This form of transportation allows up to 400 pallets of fresh produce to be transported in one load. ColdHarvest is expanding this operation to also procure and attract different produce from other areas like the Eastern Cape and Mpumalanga and thus bring the produce to ColdHarvest. The fruit is loaded directly into pre-cooled containers at Cold Harvest onto the waiting trains. The containers are kept cold by power-points next to the railway line, while the train is being loaded, thus keeping the shipment continuously cooled. By loading containers onto a train, it increases the daily loading capacity at ColdHarvest. Thanks to Spoornet, entire railway rosters are scheduled around the Cold Harvest trains, so that the railway route is kept clear of other traffic and no stops have to be made until the train, with its precious cargo, reaches the harbour. This is a combined initiative between ColdHarvest, Progressive Logistics, and Transnet, with the support of the fruit industry. At the official launch of the project a number of dignitaries from Transnet, Progressive Logistics, and the fruit industry was informed about the project by Mr Ockert Henning, Managing Director of SAFT, and Mr Deon Hanekom, General Manager of ColdHarvest. The initiative was enthusiastically received by the fruit industry.
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