KZN Dairy farmers donating R500 000 in aid to assist distressed rural farming communities affected by the lockdown as well as emerging farmers. File picture: Supplied.
DURBAN - WITH future incidents of looting and unrest possible, an agriculture expert has warned that contingency plans were needed to ensure the safe transport of food and other vital supplies across the country.
Agriculture expert Theo Boshoff, in a recent agribusiness webinar that was held by the Durban Chamber of Commerce and Industry, called for a greater consideration of rail transport as a means to move goods, especially food.
Boshoff’s comments were in reference to the complete disruption of the food supply chain during the July unrest as both the N2 and N3 routes were closed due to the violence and looting of trucks, and the inability of the port to move goods.
Boshoff, from the Agricultural Business Chamber (Agbiz), said that businesses in KwaZulu-Natal alone suffered losses amounting to more than R1.23 billion during the July unrest.
“There is no reason to believe that this (the riots) will not happen in the future, and that is why other forms of transport including rail should be considered,” Boshoff said.
Sandy la Marque, the chief executive of the KwaZulu-Natal Agricultural Union (Kwanalu), agreed that measures needed to be taken to ensure the efficient transport of goods.
She said the unrest continued to have an ongoing impact on the agricultural sector and value chain at large.
“There are still significant challenges being experienced with the movement of goods, particularly out of the Durban harbour. This is severely impacting the grain industry, and others.”
Asked about the option of goods being transported by rail, La Marque said the movement of goods would ideally be on a rail network.
“The current experience is that the road network is under strain and cannot be sustained with the volume of goods being moved.”
However, she added that the existing rail network also faced its challenges.
“Perhaps more could and should be done to move the transportation of goods on to an efficient and safe rail network.”
Industry experts, economists and academics said that the current rail network was hampered by significant problems, and that it was unlikely to be a viable option for transporting goods.
Economist Professor Bonke Dumisa said that rail was far more costly and would negatively affect the food value chain.
“Businesses are using road transport because rail has proved to be a very unreliable mode of transport,” he said.
“In terms of safety of products there is a proportionally higher rate of theft on rail than on road transport. The delivery times are more dependable on road transport than on rail.”
Road Freight Association chief executive Gavin Kelly echoed Dumisa’s sentiment, stressing that the focus should be on the safety of the roads network as it remained the most efficient mode available.
“There is no guarantee that rail will not be attacked. We have seen incidents of goods being looted when trains are in sidings and even some along routes when the power has gone down. The issue is not via which mode they travel, but ensuring that criminality is dealt with,” Kelly said.
Professor Irrshad Kaseeram, the deputy dean of research at the University of Zululand’s Economics Department, pointed out that investment in rail infrastructure was costly and would take a long time to be repaid.
Transport expert Malcolm Hartwell, from Norton Rose Fulbright South Africa, said that while rail transport would not be viable for food transport, if used optimally it would help ease the burden on the country’s road network.
“There was a time when 80% of goods were moved through rail, and the rest via road. This has changed over the years,” said Hartwell.
He added that items such as coal, iron ore and other minerals should be transported by rail, as this would ease the heavy load on the roads.
According to Hartwell, given the high cost for infrastructure investment, the government should consider entering into private-public partnership as a way of funding the operation, stressing that this route had been followed by other developing countries.
THE MERCURY
Related Topics: