Pecém Port adds a new service for fruits

The Port of Pecém (CE) added a direct line between the port and the Port of Valencia, Spain, with nine days of nonstop transit. The new service route will allow fruits exported from the port of Ceará to reach the old European continent in the 2019/2020 harvest quickly.

This year, exports will start on the 16th of next month and are expected to continue until February 2020. Fresh fruit will be exported through the Port of Pecém. Mainly melons, produced in Ceará and Rio Grande do Norte; and mangos and grapes, produced in the São Francisco River Valley.

In addition to the traditional lines going to the United States and Northern Europe, a new MSC line – Mediterranean Shipping Company – will start operating on the last week of September, from the Port of Pecém towards ports located in Spain and Italy.

The direct line to the Mediterranean Sea will make its first stop in Valencia (9 days) and then will continue to Barcelona (11 days); Genova (13 days); Livorno (15 days); and Gioia Tauro (16 days). The new service will also allow the transshipment (connection) of the fruit containers to ports of countries in the Middle East.

The ship to be used in the new line can carry up to 8,500 containers. And each refrigerated container can pack up to 25 tons of fruit. In the 2018/2019 harvest, MSC alone transported 2,000 fruit containers from the Port of Pecém.

“The Port of Pecém is a port that follows the rules, and it is a port that has the structure to receive our big ships. It brings together the main advantages that a modern port can offer. We expect that in this harvest we can at least double the volume shipped in 2018”, said Daniel Soares, manager of MSC.

This year, the export of the fruit harvest will coincide with the delivery of two key projects for the expansion of the operational capacity of the Pecém Industrial and Port Complex – CIPP. By the end of September, a new access bridge to the Multiple Use Terminal and a new berth for ships should be in full operation.

“The 9th crib will give us greater productivity, especially with the possibility of mooring two ships at the same time. It means more movement and more use of our STSs (container handling equipment)”, said Marcelo Gurgel, Sales Executive at APM Terminals.

Also, CIPP signed an agreement to optimize the export process which temporarily assigns staff to work with the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, and Food Supply (MAPA) located in the Port of Pecém.

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