Port congestion | Bumper harvests can’t get out of Cape Town port

CAPE TOWN - The Western Cape is the country's leading exporter of agricultural products.

Good rains should see a bumper harvest this year and increased revenue.

But this potential is being compromised by a lack of loading and off-loading equipment at ports.

Finance MEC Mireille Wenger says this may lead to job cuts.

"Once you lose market share it's very hard to gain it back.

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"It is all about reliability in the system and it's all about sending a signal to the agricultural sector because food takes a long time to grow," she said.

"So you have to plan many years in advance and it makes it very difficult to do if you don’t know if you will be able to get your products out.

"The other thing is that the port is key to job creation. We have done some modeling and research suggests that about 225,000 people have jobs associated with products that via the port.

"So, if we can’t get products out and lose market share, we will also lose jobs," Wenger said.