Case Study

It would be impossible to move large quantities of fresh horticultural produce halfway around the world without supply chains in which handling, storage and transport are facilitated with the quality of the products in mind.

Logistics is the part of the supply chain process that plans, implements and controls the efficient flow and storage of fresh horticultural produce, and the information related to their journey from the point of origin to the point of consumption.

Transport to move fresh produce to a desired location with minimum loss to quality and in a cost-efficient way is a vital link in the supply chain. Successful transport depends, to a large extent, on successful packing and quality packaging. As packaging has to protect fragile fresh produce from damage caused by vibration, friction and impact, it is a frontline soldier in the battle against natural deterioration.

Fresh fruit and flowers are consolidated into unit loads for transport purposes. It starts with the packing of individual bags, punnets or wrappers into cartons. The cartons are then loaded and strapped onto pallets that go into refrigerated (reefer) containers, which can be transferred to or from ships, trains and flat-bed trucks by giant cranes.

Effective logistics and technologies are critical to ensure success for the producer, the retailer and every other supply chain partner in between.

Because export produce and cut flowers spend such a long time in refrigerated containers, the latter are rightly considered the keepers of quality and freshness. An important benefit of exporting in containers is the ability to split and transfer cargo from one ship to another (trans-shipped). For example, in a port in Spain, cargo could be trans-shipped onto feeder vessels, one of which might take the produce to Algeria, while the others could move cargo to ports in France and Italy.

The advent of containerisation in 1977 was the culmination of years of experimenting with increasingly sophisticated shipping techniques for temperature-controlled cargo. In the same year, the South African Europe Container Service (SAECS) consortium was established and contributed to the strong growth in commodity shipments.

Today several shipping lines offer dedicated containerised services from South Africa. When choosing one, the services on offer, sailing intervals, rate structure, schedule integrity, transit time to destination and the shipping line profile or culture should all be considered.

The collective supply chain is a similarly multifaceted beast. Only through a meeting of minds can solutions be optimised to achieve more efficient and cost-effective delivery of high-quality produce to the market.

QUESTION 3 (25 Marks)

Transport is important when it comes to supply chain and logistics. There are different functions of transport in logistics.

Using examples, critically differentiate three (3) functions of transport. In addition, with reference to the Case Study, recommend and motivate for two (2) modes of transport which can be used to transport flowers.