Conhexa to re-boost activity in Port of Sète fruit terminal
Following a call for proposals by the Port of Sète in June 2016, the Conhexa group, which is a major player in this type of traffic, was chosen to manage the 23,000m2 fruit terminal.
The Conhexa group notably owns the companies Dunfrost (100,000m3 warehouse with 21,000 palette capacity) and Dunfresh (28,000m2 warrehouse), in the Port of Dunkirk. This family-run business notably works with bananas from the French West Indies, Ecuador, Ivory Coast, Dominican Republic, Costa Rica and Colombia.
With their cold terminal equipped with 140 reefer plugs dockside in the Port de Sète, the group is adding on a new entrance for their fruit and vegetable traffic destined for South Europe. Thanks to this, the Conhexa group will be able to ensure a complete logistics service from the ship to the final client, covering reception, quality control, stocking and shipping of fresh produce under controlled temperatures ((-1° to + 18°).
“Through this ultra-modern terminal which will be able to treat both conventional merchandise and Reefer containers, the Port of Sète will represent a great opportunity for fruit and vegetable exporters as an alternative to ports in North Europe.”
The activity will allow the Port of Sète to successfully diversify within this promising sector. Leaders of the Conhexa group were aware that the site would need to respect natural resources, installing over 11,000m2 of photovoltaic panels over the whole roof of the terminal, allowing them to produce 2,213 (MWh) per year.
The SIVEP and the PIF (Border Inspection Post) set up since September 2012 will allow optimum control of merchandise throughout the year.
Conhexa will be able to rely on a multimodal port community giving direct access to motorway networks in order to deliver merchandise to the final client. The Conhexa group has greatly contributed to the development of the Port of Dunkirk and hopes to do the same for the Port of Sète.
The Cold Terminal in key dates :
- May 2009 Planning permission filed for by RTS
- October 2011 Arrival of Eurocrane container cranes
- May 2011 RTS warehouse up and running
- July 2011 End of Carmel-Agrexco stopovers
- November 2011 Stopovers by Cosiarma start again with Zim and Cosco
- December 2012 PEC approval
- April 2013 End of Cosiarma stopovers
- March 2014 PED approval achieved
- October 2016 Quay H delivered
- June 2015 Court ordered liquidation of RTS terminal
- June 2016 Call for proposals launched to find new operator
- May 2017 Conhexa arrives as new operator
For more information:
Arnaud Rieutort
Port of Sète
rieutort.arnaud@portsuddefrance-sete.fr
www.portsuddefrance-sete.fr