Page 3 - Hafen Hamburg Magazin
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  Dear Readers,
The Port of Hamburg’s history as a trading hub for foodstuffs commenced in the tenth century AD. Colonial merchandise such as coffee, tea, spices and cocoa fuelled the growth of the port, and later the building of Speicherstadt or ‘Warehouse City’. In the Hanseatic era, wealthy merchants were given the symbolic nickname ‘pepper sacks’. Today agricultural produce and food- stuffs still constitute around 15 percent of throughput volume in the coun- try’s largest seaport. Germany is among the world’s leading food exporters. Excellent value, high quality products and the reliability of German producers are appreciated worldwide. Apart from meat and dairy products, exports of 16 million hectolitres put beer up among the rankings. Yet Germans also yearn for tropical fruits, exotic spices, coffee, tea, cocoa, and much else that cannot be produced in the country. With a throughput of 1.3 million tons, for example, the banana is a top import product.
Down the centuries, services relating to transport, storage and processing have repeatedly been adapted to cater for precious and tasty ingredients from all over the world. This issue of Port of Hamburg Magazine reports what on earth the Customs has to do with groceries, how lobsters travel nowa- days, how a banana reaches the correct degree of ripeness, and how even beer’s journey from the hinterland to the port can be environment-friendly.
We wish you an enjoyable read.
Sincerely yours, Ingo Egloff and Axel Mattern Joint CEO’s Port of Hamburg Marketing
PORT OF TASTE ■
  © HHM / Achim Multhaupt




























































































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