Fruits SA concerned that more jobs are on the line due to power cuts

Fruits South Africa has lamented the ongoing power cuts and organisation says this will affect many jobs in the sector.

According to Fruit SA CEO,  CEO Fhumulani Ratshitanga, she said it is not viable to farm and many growers will be out of business.

The body said if Stage 6 load shedding persists and is not resolved, many growers will go out of business, putting thousands of jobs at risk, while emerging growers will be hit the most.

This website understands that the fruit sector employs just under 300 000 people directly on farms.

“The reality is that it is not viable to farm, pack or export at Stage 6 level of load shedding since it becomes difficult to manage irrigation schedules, cooling and packing with the use of generators beyond Stage 3 of load shedding,” Ratshitanga said in an interview per IOL.

In addition to Ratshitanga’s sentiments, the Centre for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) announced last week that the year 2022 overtook 2021 as the most intensive load shedding year yet, with December being the highest load shedding month ever.

“Due to the relatively short shelf life of fruit, preferential treatment and exclusions and/or lower levels of load shedding could go a long way for our industry, including those involved in cooling and storage of the products,” Ratshitanga added.

She said the exemption of ports from all stages of load shedding was also critical for the country as it could not afford for port operations to be affected by load shedding.

“Many growers have invested heavily in solar and diesel generators to ensure that they harvest, pack and store the fruit, and apply irrigation. This investment is questionable if further down the supply chain a break in the cold chain or logistics chain impacts fruit movement and quality.”

Looking at the National Treasury, South Africa’s economy will grow at a muted 0.9% in 2023 as a result of prolonged power cuts and the deterioration of port and rail infrastructure.

In his National Budget speech he delivered last week, Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana did not provide much relief to farmers and the Road Accident Fund (RFA) diesel fuel levy refund that was granted to food manufacturers.

“We saw massive cost increases across the value chain (e.g. diesel increased by 25%, packing material by 22% and fertiliser by 80%),” she continued.

“Shipping costs also increased. The industry also had to contend with shortfalls in infrastructure and capacity, port closures and bottlenecks in logistics, load shedding, shipping delays, higher interest rates, and average to low prices.”