Hapag-Lloyd starts seasonal Service "Citrus Connect"

From the end of May until September – just in time for the peak citrus season – we offer an additional service from South Africa: Our “Citrus Connect” will help local growers reach markets in Europe and North America – a trade that has shown a significant growth.

The service will offer weekly departures from Durban and the Eastern Cape during the peak citrus season directly to our terminal in Tangier, to all destinations in North Europe, the Mediterranean, the East Coast of the United States, and Canada. 2,200 reefers are pre-positioned in South Africa. Our seasonal service provides growers and exporters with an average of 700 reefer plugs per sailing.

The Citrus Growers Association of Southern Africa (CGA) strongly welcomes the new service as it will increase stability, flexibility, and competition in the shipping market. Justin Chadwick, CEO of the CGA: “The citrus industry and the broader economy need as much access to shipping as possible. In securing market access and more streamlined logistics, South Africa could very well increase its citrus exports with 20 million 15kg cartons of citrus in the coming season.”

New Service “Citrus Connect” – 3 Questions answered

Thomas, why is Hapag-Lloyd coming up now with the new service “Citrus Connect” for South Africa?

Orting Jorgensen, Thomas, Senior Director TM Africa
The future prospects for South African citrus produce to the markets in Europe and North America show a significant growth. Well beyond what the southbound year-round based services can handle. We feel an obligation to support the growers in South Africa in their quest to compete and win in these markets. And we plan to further expand and enhance the product and our value adding services in the seasons to come. For this we aim to also go beyond the traditional markets to secure a sustainable growth and to cover less mature alternative markets such as the Far East, Middle East and India

Rogelio, why is this new product more attractive for the citrus growers compared to similar services offered?

Busto Rogelio, Managing Director Area South Africa
With our new offer, we provide the growers with sufficient capacity to both handle the expected growth of citrus - as we have heard, it is the CGA's goal to export an additional 100 million cartons by 2032. At the same time we help them to deal with the operational challenges. Our dedicated team of professionals is commited to timeliness and efficiency.

Hernán, do we have outstanding equipment features and value-added services for our customers?

Hernán Martinez, Senior Director Global Reefer, Special Cargo
Yes, we do have a number of products that add value to our customers and differentiates our service from our competitors. Through Hapag-Lloyd LIVE we offer highly transparent remote monitoring which enables visibility about cargo location and temperature, in all cases, and gas supply for controlled atmosphere fitted containers. We also offer cold treatment to comply with governmental regulations whenever necessary. These services are supported by a very modern container fleet. As a matter of fact, in January we have pre-positioned 2,200 brand-new reefers to South Africa to build up the necessary stocks to comply with this increased demand. In addition to the container related services, we are setting up a control tower to proactively ensure on-time loading and delivery of our customers cargo.