Fruit importers have a bonanza in Chennai port with Cold storage facility being set up at Ponnery

Fruit importers to Chennai Port have bonanza with APM terminal setting up a major cold storage facility at Ponnery about fifteen kilometers away from the port. The facility was declared open last week. It could store perishable goods like fruits, vegetrables, meat, fish and pharma products.

Spread over ten thousand square meters the cold storage facility at Ponnery in North Chennai offers customs clearance facilitation. It has proximity to ports like Chennai, Ennore, Katupalli and krishnapatnam.

The facility created by APM terminal of Denmark part of the shipping line Maersk group will provide refrigerated container plug in facilities for cold warehousing  with services ranging from customs examination and clearance under controlled temperature, value added services like pelletisation and packaging, on wheel customs seal verification and bonded cargo movement in different seaports and airports.

The services are available to both domestic and international import and export customers. The client will be offered an integrated cold storage solution right from the time the consignment is offloaded from the ship to the consumption centre,

At present apple importers from Australia offload their consignment into vehicles at the Chennai port which may not have a refrigerated container plug in facility. This could affect the quality of apples as and when it reaches consumption centers in various parts of the city including its wholesale market.

M-1The prices of apples get reduced as the days progress since the quality deteriotes with out cold storage.

When the importers use the Ponnery cold storage facility, the importer could offload the consignment and store them there. They could lift the stocks depending on the requirement of the market. The shelf life of the fruits get  a fabulous increase . The importers can also take the products to various consumption centers in Tamil Nadu and neighboring states for which arrangement s have been made with truckers who have vehicles with plug in facility.

This is the third Cold Storage facility the APM Terminal has set up near Chennai the other two being one in Chile in South America and Cape Town in South Africa. It is planning to set up one at Nhava Sheva port.

We will ensure reliable and stable transport of cargo including fruits fish vegetable and speciality chemicals that require strict temperature controls throughout the supply chain said a spokesman of the terminal.