A deal which would have seen 500,000 tonnes of Spanish fruit and vegetables shipped into the port of Southampton has been put on ice.
This is because the firm which signed the contract, Southampton Fruit Handling, has had its assets acquired by Solent Stevedores.
The deal will see it take over the running of Southampton Fruit Handling's fruit terminal on the south coast. As a result of this arrangement, the 60new jobs which would have been created by the formation of anew shipping route between Almeria and Southampton aimed at taking Spanish-grown fruit and vegetables on a three-day journey has been temporarily frozen.
The first ship had been due to unload at the port last month, but was cancelled.
Speaking when the deal was penned in October,Jose Manuel Ortiz, Andalucia's minister for agriculture, said: 'We are not only speaking about exports to the UK; from here in Southampton we could have a logistics platform for fresh produce from Almeria for other countries too.'
The Port of Southampton is one of the UK’s busiest and most successful deep-water ports.
