Belgian-owned fruit port business Seabrex in Rotterdam filed for bankruptcy on June 22.

Parent company Belgian New Fruit Wharf put in the petition less than a year after acquiring the beleaguered fresh-produce stevedoring operation. Seabrex said in a statement that bankruptcy came as “the consequence of an accumulation of circumstances”.

Seabrex was already in difficulty last summer when BNFW was buying out The Ebrex Group’s shares in the company. Ebrex itself went into bankruptcy before the share deal was complete.

Further difficulties cited in the statement issued by BNFW last week were: “a substantial decrease in the arrival of volumes due to climatic influences such as the earthquake in Chile, the aridity in South Africa and the floods in the Canary Islands, together with the economic crisis and the fierce competition of inland warehouses.”

Seabrex had ambitious expansion plans and had been holding of investing in its Merwehaven location pending the development of Stadshavens by the local authority. However, a spending freeze by the latter brought on by the global financial crisis postponed Seabrex’s new-location plans indefinitely.

At its height, Seabrex was discharging more than one million pallets of fresh produce a year in Rotterdam, but according to BNFW, the continuation of the company with its present cost structure at its current location could no longer be justified.

The company said it is looking at how it can continue to take an active part in fresh produce operations at Rotterdam.

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