Chiquita will mostly move the import streams of bananas in
Europe to Vlissingen. Chiquita will send the conventional reeferships of the Great White Fleet only to Vlissingen as of this week and drop the German Bremershaven from the shipping schedule. Bananas will still arrive in the Bremerhaven through the various shipping companies.
Transshipment company Kloosterboer in the Zeeuwse port is profiting from the strategic decision. Banana producer Chiquita, which was taken over by Cutrale-Safra, a Brazilian export of fruit juices, last year, made Vlissingen an important transshipment point in Europe last year. "The volumes that is usually unloaded in the Bremerhaven, is now coming to Vlissingen. This had been known for a while, but has now officially come out," says Jack Kloosterboer. He expects a doubling of Chiquita's load supply, which comes to 400,000 pallets.
The big loser is the transshipment company Heuer Logistics in Bremerhaven. The company which the former director-owner Jan Ebus of the bankrupt Rotterdam Ebrex ruled for a long time, is said to face losing half of their yearly banana volume of 300,000 tonnes. "It will hurt us, but it will not kill us," says director Matthias Hasselder of Heuer Logistics in Bremerhaven.