SOUTH AFRICA - According to recent updates from Summer Citrus from South Africa (SCSA), the Western Cape of the country is experiencing record rain for this time of year compared to the last decade. With these weather patterns causing some challenges, the citrus provider laid out the impacts on shipping.

“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,” SCSA Chief Executive Officer Suhanra Conradie explained in an email update. “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, the main growing region of SCSA’s product, faced more challenges due to the rainfall this season, Suhanra's update went on to share. This area was without electricity for a few days, but it has since been restored. Access to certain roads and orchards was also a challenge in the past week, but it has been resolved.

Since the passing of these storms, there have been sunny days, enabling growers to pick a healthy amount of fruit. Currently, SCSA predicts that it will be YTD slightly ahead of its estimated shipments by the end of this week as well as the YTD figures of 2022.

SCSA entered the United States market with limited volumes shipped on the MSC Shirley toward the end of May and has slowly gained momentum toward the end of this month with more container vessels. From now on, the company will have weekly arrivals of conventional and/or container vessels into the Port of Philadelphia.

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Summer Citrus From South Africa