Peel Ports Medway is considering the closure of part of its fresh produce facility at the Port of Sheerness.
Managing director Gary Parkinson has written to the trade to advise of a consultation process with staff. In his letter he said: “The immediate impact is the Port of Sheerness will be considering the closure of W6 as a fresh produce warehouse, however we would plan to use it to increase our presence in our other core sectors ie import/export of vehichles, steel, forest products, containers and servicing the renewables market.”
Sheerness’s fresh produce clients include A1 Fruits, Grapes Direct and Chiquita, and the port has Seatrade and NYK reefer vessels scheduled to call before Christmas.
A spokeswoman said: “In the event that W6 closes the Port of Sheerness will continue to offer first-class facilities to our customers for the efficient and careful handling of fresh produce. Our offering beyond W6 includes 80,000 sq ft of multi-temperature chilled warehousing, 150 reefer container plug-in points, an on-site banana ripening facility and a BRC-accredited packhouse.
'The Port of Sheerness will continue to offer both container and conventional cargo handling. We provide added-value services – from de-palletising, re-packing and barcoding to box-end labelling, case picking, topping and pallet reconstruction.”
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