The ripple effects of the U.S.-Israel-Iran conflict are hitting South African fruit exporters, leaving containers of fruits bound for the Gulf region stuck in transit.
The crisis is threatening a 1.3-billion-U.S.-dollar export market to the Middle East. Currently, an estimated 167 containers of South African stone fruit are reported to be stranded at sea, risking spoilage. The fresh produce was intended for Gulf markets.
Exporters are attempting to divert shipments to alternative destinations, but their efforts are hindered by varying regulatory standards, limited capacity in alternate markets and additional logistics costs.
Ernst van Biljon, head lecturer in Supply Chain Management at the IMM Graduate School in Johannesburg, noted that the perishable nature of the fruits makes them especially vulnerable to delays during extended shipping times.
"We always talk about maintaining the cold chain, literally from the farmer through to the cold chain containers. Those containers on both container trucks and on ships need to maintain a certain level of temperature, humidity, otherwise you will have spoilage because it takes quite some time for that fruit to reach its destination. Certainly, for the fruit exporters, it is not a good situation at the moment. The Middle East itself has become a very large growing market for us, also largely in recent years due to the tariff issues with the U.S., so we have about 90 percent of our fruit shipments bound for the Middle East that have been disrupted," he said.
South Africa's fruit export hit by US-Israeli war on Iran
More than 560 cutting-edge scientific and technological achievements and products were showcased at the permanent exhibition of the Zhongguancun Exhibition Center during the 2026 Zhongguancun Forum (ZGC Forum) Annual Conference.
The intelligence zone enjoyed the greatest popularity. The zone showcased robots performing various real-world applications, from sorting goods to sewing needles.
"We installed more than 20 motors in the robot's hand, and each motor must be fast enough, powerful enough, and stable enough," said exhibitor Zhang Yanbai.
Technical solutions in frontier fields, such as automatic implantation of invasive brain-computer interface surgeries, also attracted flocks of visitors.
The exhibition also showcased technological achievements and the latest applications in fields such as intelligent manufacturing and commercial aerospace.
In addition, a special zone for the joint development of new productivity in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region was set up, where representatives from the three regions focused on showcasing their projects, communicating with upstream and downstream enterprises, universities, research institutes, and related service providers to strengthen collaborative innovation and industrial cooperation.
The forum, running in Beijing from Wednesday to Sunday, is focused on the theme of "Full Integration Between Technological and Industrial Innovation."
Since its founding in 2007, the forum has become a major international event for advancing science and technology innovation.
Over 560 frontier sci-tech achievements showed at permanent exhibition during Zhongguancun Forum
