The development of maritime logistics in the Mediterranean will be the subject of debate at the first ever Green Med Forum, to be held in Slovenia in March.

‘Fresh Produce Maritime Logistics in the Mediterranean’ will be held in Portoroz, Slovenia, at the St Bernardin Convention Centre on March 10-12. Logistics experts, port managers and representatives of shipping lines are expected to attend, and Radovan Zerjav, Slovenia’s transport minister, and current president-in-office of the EU’s transport ministers, will do the honour at the opening session.

Delegates are expected from Italy, Spain, France, Egypt, Morocco, Turkey and Tunisia.

The Mediterranean industry feels it needs faster, more efficient and less costly connections with consumer markets, in particular the EU. “We will not be able to talk about a Mediterranean system until the network represented by ports, shipping companies, transport professionals and import-export operators and distributors is tighter,” say the congress organisers.

Luca Lanini, professor of food logistics at the University of Parma, says: “This is not only a precondition for increased traffic between the two shores of the largest inland sea of the world, but this will enable ports and logistics facilities to manage a greater share of the world traffic in transit between Suez and Gibraltar, in view of the development of the countries’ economies. Food transport will be the one to grow the most in the coming years. The challenge also concerns the integration between sea and land logistics. Ports must develop better inter-modality.”

The congress is being organised by international business magazine Green Med Journal, in collaboration with Luka Koper, the company that operates the Port of Koper in the Upper Adriatic.

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