• Facility opened near Cape Town port
• Warehouse aims to boost exports, cut losses in perishable goods sector
• New site supports cold-chain recovery amid major logistics challenges
  

The South African arm of Danish shipping group Maersk, on Oct. 28, opened a new cold storage warehouse in Belcon, near Cape Town port, as part of a $100 million investment to modernize the country’s cold-chain logistics network.

The new facility is designed to increase exports of perishable goods, especially citrus and table grapes. Maersk said the goal is to preserve product quality, cut post-harvest losses, and enhance the global competitiveness of South African producers.

“The South African wine industry has faced major challenges, with breaks and delays in the cold chain costing up to 1.5 billion rand ($80 million) a year,” Maersk noted.

South Africa’s cold-chain logistics sector has struggled in recent years due to underinvestment in infrastructure and bottlenecks in ports and rail freight, resulting in significant losses for exporters of perishables.

With the Belcon facility now operational, Maersk operates three cold storage warehouses in South Africa; the others are in Cato and PreCoo.

Henoc Dossa