Work is well underway on the £6 million fresh produce terminal at the Port of Liverpool, planned for completion in October.
The terminal, being constructed on the quayside at Royal Seaforth Dock, will enable the transfer of thousands of tonnes of fruit and vegetables from road to ship.
Go-Associates, the firm behind the development, is initially targeting the Spanish fresh produce season, offering a cost-effective all-water alternative to the 300 trucks trundling into the UK from the continent every day with fruit from Spain.
Operations director Andy Rickard explained that two million tonnes of fresh produce are supplied to the UK by Spain every year - half of it destined for the north of the country. “Most of this major trade is moved by road on trucks carrying just 26 pallets each from the main growing areas of Spain,” he said. “The situation cries out for high volume direct delivery by sea. Liverpool Produce Terminal (LPT) will offer a state-of-the-art fresh produce terminal capable of discharging a 5,000-pallet ship in 24 hours and ideally located to reach any part of this vast market of 30m people within a truck driver’s tachograph driving day.
“LPT will maintain the cool chain but eliminate up to two truck journeys from the logistics chain - the journeys to and from the packhouse, as we are planning to open a packhouse adjacent to the terminal.”
The 90,000 sqft cool store located alongside the Royal Seaforth Container Terminal and the site of the Port of Liverpool’s planned £100+ million Post Panamax River Container Terminal, will be operated around the clock, employing as many as 100 permanent and supplemental staff.
There has been an enthusiastic response to the Liverpool facility from fresh produce suppliers and buyers. Rickard said: “Food shippers are increasingly responsive to growing public concern about greenhouse emissions and the contribution to this problem made by road haulage.
“Some 10m tonnes of fresh produce are shipped into the UK each year and half of it comes up to the northern half of the country. It makes economic and environmental sense to bring that volume to the deep-sea port that is closest to the population of 30m people and is served by the best motorway network for rapid distribution direct to supermarkets.”
Frank Robotham, marketing director for Peel Ports Group, which owns and operates the Port of Liverpool, said: “The development of LPT is another example of how the Port of Liverpool, with its central location, continues to make major contributions to the reduction of truck road miles. LPT is set to make a most significant contribution to the food transport industry’s response to economic and environmental pressure to cut food miles and the carbon footprint.
“The terminal will also enable Peel Ports Group to supply fresh produce to the whole of the UK through the new facility at the Port of Liverpool in the North and its established operations at the Port of Sheerness in the South East of England.”
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