A shipment of pomegranates from Total Produce has been the first to arrive at a new site in Rotterdam’s Kloosterboer Cool Port, a cold storage and logistics hub.
The fruit arrived at Maasvlakte, the harbour and industrial area near the city of Rotterdam, recently, marking the official opening of Kloosterboer Cool Port.
Coming in on the Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC) container ship, the pallets of pomegranates were transported by barge from the Kramer Home Terminal to Cool Port for landing, control and storage.
Managing director of Total Produce Rotterdam, Michel Jansen, says the company is poised to take advantage of the logistical advantages of Cool Port as well as ramp up volumes of produce handled at the site.
“Following a long period of preparation and intensive cooperation with Kloosterboer Cool Port, last week we reached an important milestone when Cool Port Rotterdam received our consignment – the very first to pass through its doors,” he says.
“The entire team here at Total Produce Rotterdam is now looking forward to seeing the volume of our goods handled at Cool Port continue to rise as well as taking full advantage of all the possibilities that this unique location has to offer.”
Kloosterboer Cool Port includes a packing and unpacking facility for handling fruit and vegetables, ripening rooms and storage capacity of 40,000 pallets, of which 30,000 is dedicated to cold storage and 10,000 to deep-freeze storage.
There is also a 7,500 square metre expedition area featuring 38 dock shelters.
“The Cool Port project is a big step forward for Kloosterboer. It is an innovative, logistics solution which incorporates barging, automated process management and information provision in the supply chain. The location has proved attractive and we can already conclude that Cool Port is a great success,” says Jaco Hooij, CEO Kloosterboer.
“Even before the doors were opened 80% of the storage space had already been reserved resulting in the need for and reality of Cool Port II growing one step closer.”
Located at the City Terminal in the port of Rotterdam, the Cool Port is ideally situated, for sea, rail and road connections.
“The opening of Cool Port represents yet another valuable expansion of the temperature controlled activities and logistics in Rotterdam’s port. This new cold storage facility forms part of the former City Terminal site which is being developed into an efficient and compact multimodal distribution centre for short sea shipping, inland shipping, rail and road transport,” adds Emile Hoogsteden, managing director of containers, breakbulk & logistics, Port of Rotterdam.
