Food, furniture, fashion – directly from Italy to South Africa

In the strategic Mediterranean region & Africa, a. hartrodt is specifically expanding the Italy–South Africa trade lane. “For this corridor, we now have a unified control tower that handles pricing, sales, and operational processing between origin and destination,” says Sean Caricola, National Sales Manager at a. hartrodt South Africa. He works closely at origin with Hristina Cosani, National Sales Manager at a. hartrodt italiana. “As central points of contact, we jointly manage the entire ecosystem and offer customers full transparency, from the supplier in Italy to the final consignee in South Africa,” she emphasizes.

Market knowledge and international background

The new managers have experience in freight forwarding, market knowledge, and an international background. Sean Caricola comes from an Italian-South African family and started his career at South Africa's largest Italian food importer before moving into logistics. Hristina Cosani, who now resides in Italy, is from North Macedonia and grew up in South Africa, where she worked for a. hartrodt as Italian Route Development Executive 15 years ago.

High-quality goods for growth market in the region

According to Hristina Cosani, South Africa's imports from Italy already amounted to 2.5 billion US dollars in 2024. From a. hartrodt's point of view, the two markets are highly complementary, “as Italy is a global manufacturing hub for high-quality goods and South Africa is a growing consumer market with a gateway into the wider Southern African region,” explains Sean Caricola. With an industry focus on food & beverage, furniture, and fashion, the cross-country project team develops weekly air and sea freight consolidations, including temperature controlled solutions. “This saves time and costs for customers with multiple suppliers in the Mediterranean,” says Hristina Cosani.

Apart from further developing its LCL consolidation services, a. hartrodt uses its Genoa warehouse as a regional hub for buyers consolidation (LCL/FCL).  It essentially means that an importer in South Africa may have various suppliers not just in Italy, but also in France, Spain, Portugal, Greece, or Turkey. By using the Genoa warehouse as an authorized CFS (container freight station), clients benefit from the following advantages: better control over shipping schedules, reduced freight costs and centralized logistics management.