The import/export traffic of fruits, vegetables and legumes through Spanish ports reached 2,917,449 tons in the first 8 months of the year, which represented an increase of 25.5% compared to the same period of the previous year. These data confirm that Spain, due to its strategic geographical location, in addition to being the first exporting country in Europe, has become the “gateway” of entry for fruit imports from third countries.
In this sense, the existence of an extensive network of “reefer” connections in port terminals, as well as cold storage companies both in ports and in the logistics areas associated with them, allows us to look to the future with optimism. The main association of the refrigeration sector, Aldefe, has reported that the occupancy rate of the nearly 3 million m3 of its members exceeded 80%. This sector invoiced more than €177 M in 2016.
According to the closing data for 2017, the publicly owned port system moved 545 million tons, of which 10.2 million were fruits, vegetables and legumes, with an increase of 9.7% compared to the previous year. Of that amount, more than 8 million tons, 78.6%, corresponded to import-export traffic, including transit, a figure that makes Spain one of the main supplying countries of this type of products to the rest of Europe.
The increase in the movement of this type of merchandise through ports has a lot to do with the strengthening of maritime cabotage lines with European countries, which represent close to 93% of Spanish exports, and with African countries bordering the Mediterranean, which in turn is favoring the increase in intermodality.
Fuente: canaryports.es