SA’s Department of Mineral and Petroleum Resources has said the country’s fuel supplies will remain stable \u200bin the near term, despite the war in the \u200bMiddle East, which has unsettled energy and transport markets and \u2060disrupted global shipping.<\/p>\n
“While official assurances indicate that national supply remains \u200bstable, industry participants have reported limited diesel availability at certain \u200bstations, seemingly caused by unusual buying patterns and controlled allocation by industry players,” the Citrus Growers’ Association of Southern Africa (CGA) said in a statement.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
SA, \u200bthe world’s second largest citrus exporter after Spain, exported a \u200brecord 3.05 million metric tons of citrus in 2025, an increase of \u200c22% \u2060over the previous year.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The Middle East is the second biggest export market for SA citrus after Europe, accounting for 19% of total shipments in 2024, according to CGA data.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The growers’ association \u200bsays 95% of \u200bcitrus exports \u2060are moved by road to ports, exposing the industry to fuel supply and price shocks.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
“Should controlled \u200bselling or limited availability of diesel persist, it \u200bcould \u2060directly affect the functioning of the citrus supply chain,” the CGA said.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
SA’s major agricultural lobby groups have proposed measures such as \u2060a temporary \u200bexemption from paying fuel levy for primary \u200bproducers, including farmers, to cushion against the impact of a steep fuel price \u200bexpected on April 1.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
–Reuters–<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":30319,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"news-type":[44],"class_list":["post-30318","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-finance","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"South African (SA) citrus farmers are reporting isolated cases of diesel shortages as the industry braces for a fuel price \u200bincrease, potentially impacting the fruit export season, which starts \u200cin April, a growers' body said on Monday.\r\n","published_date":"","news_description":"South African (SA) citrus farmers are reporting isolated cases of diesel shortages as the industry braces for a fuel price \u200bincrease, potentially impacting the fruit export season, which starts \u200cin April, a growers' body said on Monday.","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/30318","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/30318\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30320,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/30318\/revisions\/30320"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30319"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30318"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=30318"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}