Plan to ship more fruit through Southampton
Southampton Fruit Handling (SFH) – flagged as La Alternativa Maritima de Transporte – located at the fruit terminal at Southampton Port, has introduced a scheme to ship fruit from southern Spain and the Canary Islands to keep down lorry traffic.
The firm has made a commitment to reduce emissions and is providing a new line called Southampton-Almeria Fresh line.
Almeria produces more than three million tons of fruit and vegetable each year, of which more than 70 per cent is exported mainly across Europe by lorry.
Authority representatives from Almeria in Spain, along with its port president, visited the firm in Southampton to discuss the project, which has been called The Maritime Solution.
The company relies on a team of 60 stevedores to get fresh fruit and vegetables through the port.
SFH managing director Margaret Jenkinson said supermarket chain Asda has already benefitted from the scheme after shipping an order of bananas from Tenerife in the Canary Islands.
She said: “Asda are testing it because normally they would get bananas from the Caribbean. We are saving them 34 days and Spain is looking to do the same. The feedback is fantastic. We are putting one ship on and building it up slowly.
“We are trying to keep the costs down for fruit and veg, and if you can keep it down you can reduce emissions.
“With so many lorries on our roads, there will be a delay soon because there will be a rule in Europe which will see that lorries cannot go on the road at certain times.
“We could go anywhere in the UK, but we are looking to grab Portugal’s traffic and European traffic and hopefully get it to Southampton.
“If it needs to go to Rotterdam or Antwerp we could then put it on a feeder ship.
“It’s a big risk but we have got to do something. I think it will spur on supermarkets as well as other ports. Supermarkets are very keen to have another edge on why we should go and buy from them.”
Source: www.dailyecho.co.uk
