Banana win boosts Marseille fruit trade

MAR 28, 2015: Marseille Fos has started to handle weekly banana imports from the Ivory Coast under a new reefer container deal worth 80 teu per week.
Operated by CMA CGM, the first call was on March 23 and follows a decision by the Canavese Group, a leading French fruit and vegetables specialist, to return to the Marseille eastern harbour area after years of shipping through Antwerp. The group said that the economic logic of serving southern France via Marseille had been supported by renewed client confidence in the port’s capacity, reliability and service quality regarding perishable products.
The port authority added that the switch also reflected CMA CGM’s wish to attract new volumes to Marseille on the back of sweeping market developments in Africa. The traffic is being handled by stevedores Intramar at the Med Europe terminal.
Last year fruit and vegetables throughput at Marseille Fos totalled almost 0.55million tonnes – a 6.5% increase on 2013 – with some 40% passing through the eastern harbour area.
Canavese operates seven regional depots in France and four production sites in Africa as well as three ripening centres.