Scottish importers and exporters of fresh produce are to receive a boost later this summer from a significant increase in capacity for handling refrigerated containers at the country’s largest container terminal at the Port of Grangemouth.

The port’s owner, Forth Ports Limited, is to significantly invest in extending the electricity supply infrastructure at the Port of Grangemouth from 126 specialist power supply points to 432. Refrigerated containers – known as “reefers” – require power immediately upon arrival at the port to keep their contents fresh until either being loaded onto vessels for export or collection by haulage firms for delivery across Scotland.

The installation of the increased power supply infrastructure, which is planned for completion by October, is in response to market demand, principally from Scotland’s fresh food exporters, created by a significantly longer season for the shipping of such produce as potatoes, cheese, fish and seafood to markets across the world.  The investment will maintain the Port of Grangemouth’s position as the largest reefer facility in Scotland.

The news follows the announcement in June of a major investment programme at the Port of Grangemouth to increase its capacity for storing both conventional containers and reefers and the commissioning of a feasibility study into deepening the shipping channel within the port to handle larger vessels.

Stuart Wallace, Forth Ports’ Director of Scottish Operations, said:

“Scotland has a growing reputation right across the world for the quality of our fresh produce and that’s resulted in increasing demand for reefer capacity. That’s good for the Scottish economy and good for business and we’re committed to investing in support of this growth through increasing our reefer capacity at the Port of Grangemouth.”

Mark Cornwell, Operations Manager UK & Ireland for Maersk Line, one of the principal shippers of fresh produce from Scotland, said:

“Shipments of temperature controlled products are a critical and growing part of our business in Scotland and this exciting development ensures that Grangemouth will be well placed to support demand growth in this segment. As a long term customer of both Forth Ports and the Port of Grangemouth we have seen how they have been able to understand and support both our needs and those of our customers and we look forward to collaborating further to encourage future growth in the Scottish economy.”

Source: Forth Ports, 14 August 2015