It will present its services for the fruit and vegetable sector from 23 to 26 October in Madrid

Once again this year the Port of Tarragona will take part in the Fruit Attraction Fair to be held at IFEMA, the Madrid Exhibition Centre, from 23 to 26 October. This international trade fair for the fruit and vegetable sector attracts 1,600 exhibitor companies and more than 70,000 professionals from 120 countries. This trade fair is gaining in international recognition year after year.

The Port will have a stand in the State Ports Authority area and already has meetings planned, not only with the sector’s importers and exporters, but also with marketing companies and shipping lines. The Port of Tarragona delegation will be headed by its president, Josep Andreu, and the Director of Marketing and Business Development, Genoveva Climent.

Tarragona, a benchmark port

Fruit and vegetable traffic has seen a major growth in the Port of Tarragona. More than 137,739 tons of fruit were handled in 2017. Of particular importance were kiwis, mainly from New Zealand, and pineapples and bananas from Costa Rica and Colombia.

The Port of Tarragona is a solid international reference point that has achieved a progressive improvement in its positioning among the ranks of the Spanish ports, consolidating its excellent results despite the economic context. Its strategic location in southern Europe has contributed to strengthening its international relations, especially in fruit imports, consolidating its position as the gateway for tropical fruit on the Iberian Peninsula. Moreover, the Port of Tarragona has an excellent infrastructure and intermodal services that make it the best choice on the Mediterranean for onward distribution to Spain and the rest of Europe.

Efficient facilities and services

The Port has more than 20,000 m2 of cold storage facilities and a container terminal that complements those for export and offers value-added services for this type of cargo, including picking, consolidation, quality control and labelling. The services offered by the port now include a large, modern Frontier Inspection Post (FIP) with all its facilities officially approved for importing fruit into the EU. It also has specific quality controls, temperature controls, RF cargo monitoring systems and a wide range of added-value logistics services.

The Tarragona port infrastructure has two areas devoted exclusively to handling fruit. The Fruport terminal has ro-ro ramps and mooring lines of 350 m and 230 m with depths of 8.50 m and 10.50 m respectively. In total, the fruit terminal has 100 connections for reefer containers and 12 cold storage warehouses just 50 m from the dockside and with a capacity of 20,000 m2 suitable for 170,000 loaded pallets. The DP World Tarragona container terminal also handles reefer containers for fruit and has dockside depths of 16 metres, three super post-panamax cranes, 10 E-RTGs, three reach-stackers and 200 reefer connections.

Maritime links with the main producing areas

The Port of Tarragona has sea connections with the main fruit exporting countries, including regular services with New Zealand, Costa Rica, Colombia and the Dominican Republic. Almost all the kiwis sold in Spain enter through Tarragona, as well as different varieties of pineapples, bananas and avocados. There are also regular services to Canada and the United States.