Maritime export sector fails to convince Almeria's horticulture

A new attempt of the maritime shipping industry to become an option for fruit and vegetable exports…

A new attempt of the maritime shipping industry to become an option for fruit and vegetable exports and reduce Almeria's dependence on road transport has been frustrated.

Almeria's horticultural sector has again given its back to an initiative whose viability had been demonstrated on paper, but which for now won't come to fruition because of alleged "short-sightedness" from Almeria's agriculture regarding the possibilities and alternatives to improve their logistics.

Alveis Shipping Ibérica, through its CEO, Henny Endenburg, announced mid last September that they planned to revive maritime shipping routes for fruit and vegetables connecting the port of Almeria and Southampton, southern UK, with the purpose of using Southampton as a base to reach other destinations in Europe, including Rotterdam.

The first pilot shipment for the Dutch shipping company was planned to leave on 12 November, as confirmed by Endenburg during his participation in Almeria's Holland Day. To this end, they looked for a batch large enough to demonstrate the feasibility of the project to set up a regular line.

Since then, they have met with some of the top fruit and vegetable traders in Almeria and also attended Fruit Attraction; however, the failure to find a sufficiently large batch has caused the project to be postponed, as the company does not want to give up.