Due to their increasing overseas exports, BFV is planning to build a logistics centre near Vrasene, Belgium, in coming years. Preliminary approval has already been received. A depot for all logistics activities there would be ideal for efficiently collecting, cooling, packing and transporting to the port of Antwerp.
Preliminary approval
Filip Lowette, manager for BFV, indicated that the provincial council of East Flanders gave a preliminary approval on Wednesday, 7 September, for a new provincial spatial realisation plan (PSRP).
Because of the new PSRP, 4 hectares of useful land, suitable for building on, will be added. “An entire area around our department in Vrasene will get a different spatial purpose thanks to the PSRP. That means we can erect buildings there.” But it is only the beginning. “This provincial approval could be considered just one of the administrative procedures necessary to finish it completely. Several other procedural steps will now follow. We expect to finish near June 2017, which is when we will be able to tell you more about our plans.”
The current department of BFV Waasland
Size as a function of the evolution of trade
It will be a warehouse with cooling cells, sorting and packing halls and storage for wooden fruit boxes. “As regarding the planned surface area of the new buildings, we would have to say this will be developed in phases. Its size will be dependent on the evolution of overseas trade. During the first phase, a new packing hall should ensure a more efficient course of logistics for special packing for long-distance trade. We will then build fast-cooling installations, and intelligent and efficient shipping installations in phases, all in conjunction with the expansion of overseas trade. A perfectly closed cooling cycle is, after all, indispensable to a high quality course of long-distance transports.”
Distant destinations
Even before the Russian boycott, BFV focused on other destinations with its Belgian fruit. “In recent years export to those markets expanded nicely. We export to, for example, China, North Africa and India. The department in Vrasene is a stone’s throw away from the port of Antwerp. This location is therefore ideally suited for a logistics centre,” Lowette concludes. For more information:
Filip Lowette
Belgische Fruitveiling
Montenakenweg 82
3800 Sint-Truiden - Belgium
+32 11 69 34 11
www.bfv.be