A rare South African export success is threatened by crumbling ports

At a packhouse at Blydevallei Boerdery, near South Africa’s eastern border with Mozambique, workers pluck unripe grapefruit off a conveyor belt. It’s the best chance of getting them to export markets thousands of miles away before they spoil. The citrus farm is just one of many fruit producers in South Africa threatened by the near collapse of the state rail and ports company, Transnet Instead of railing its grapefruit, lemons and oranges to the port of Durban, it sends them on 20-hour truck trips. Then they can spend days in queues outside the harbor before being shipped to countries such as South Korea and nations in the Middle East.