At the Matola Cargo Terminal in Mozambique, The Logistics Group and FPT have started construction of the Maputo Cold Store and a fruit consolidation hub.
It is planned to be ready in time for next year’s citrus season. Currently fruit can only be loaded at ambient temperature from the port of Maputo.
“Initially Matola Cargo Terminal FPT will have chilled (non-cold treatment) 1,500 pallet slots from end of April 2023,” says Anton Potgieter, CEO of The Logistics Group. “If requirements and interest from the industry grows, we will further invest by racking the facility to 4,500 pallets.”
The Logistics Group will invest R120 million (6.68 million euros) to rebuild their subsidiary Matola Cargo Terminal (MCT) after a devastating fire in February this year.
"No risk of going out of protocol"
“The rebuild is in line with The Logistics Group’s strategy of expanding our current FPT Durban cold chain service offering into Mozambique to include a Maputo service. The cold store will enable exporters to send all volumes and mixed pallets since fruit can be accommodated under cooling, with no risk of going out of protocol in ambient. This will allow the exporters easier packing and shipment pallet configurations out of the packhouse.”
Plug-in points will be installed at MCT so that containers can be packed and stacked before the vessel stacks open, allowing for a greater volume throughput.
The rebuilt Matola Cargo Terminal warehouses will be similar (but not identical) to the previous warehouses pictured above, destroyed by fire earlier this year (photo supplied by MCT)
FPT expands its cold chain service into Mozambique
To facilitate exports of South African fresh produce via the Matola Cargo Terminal, FPT (which runs private port terminals at the ports of Durban, Cape Town and Port Elizabeth) could be the exporter’s single point of contact.
“In this way clients don’t have to deal with various entities and points of entry. They don’t have to apply for two set of credit applications but will be fully invoiced by FPT in South Africa,” says Paulo Franco, managing director of FPT.
“FPT will liaise with all exporters and use our established relationships and Warehouse Management System to enable the easy flow of cargo, coordinate truck flows, capacity allocations, receiving specs of loadouts and so forth.”
Possible future development of cold treatment tunnels
There is capacity for the future development of cold treatment tunnels but, Anton notes, that will depend on customers’ commitments and volume allocations as well as protocols approved because it represents a substantial additional investment.
“This investment by The Logistics Group will further cement our place as the leading logistics service provider on the Maputo corridor for fresh and mining commodities,” he says.
For more information:
Anton Potgieter
The Logistics Group
Email: anton.potgieter@tlg.co.za
www.tlg.co.za
Paulo Franco
FPT
Email: paulo_franco@fpt.co.za
https://fpt.co.za/
Sean Gent
Matola Cargo Terminal
Email: sean_gent@mct.co.mz
http://www.mct.co.mz/