Page 10 - Port of Hamburg Magazine 02.24

PAGE 10
ALL-PURPOSE PORT PORT OF HAMBURG MAGAZINE 2/24
In addition to bananas, the HHLA Fruit and Cooling Centre handles between 60,000 and 80,000 tonnes of other seasonal fruit varieties each year, including apples, citrus fruit and grapes.
Once the goods have arrived in Hamburg, the for- warding company Ulrich Stein organises quality controls, customs clearance and transport to O’Swaldkai, with environmentally friendly barges where possible. Trucks transport only a limited number of boxes, typically those that are time-sen- sitive. The sister company HHLA FKZ takes care of the complete physical handling – from acceptance of the container at the terminal, unloading and storage, to the loading of 400 refrigerated trucks per week, each with 24 pallets destined for the re- tail market. The managing director adds that the average storage period is between three to four days: “Bananas are a fast-moving business.” Inci- dentally, only green bananas are transhipped at HHLA FKZ. Yellow bananas are removed and dis- posed of, since they would be overripe once they reach the market.
In addition to bananas, HHLA FKZ handles 60,000 to 80,000 tonnes of other, usually seasonal fruit each year, such as apples from New Zealand, citrus fruit from South Africa or grapes from India. At the world’s sec- ond most important hub for fruit commerce, the com- pany works for multinational importers such as Fyffes, Dole, Del Monte or local companies such as Cobana, as well as directly for retailers like EDEKA and REWE.
Despite the long tradition of fruit handling at Ham- burg since the end of the 19th century, there is a high degree of automation at O’Swaldkai today. One ex- ample Hoeckrich names is the automatic high-bay warehouse for bananas or the output station called the “Ballerina” because of how quickly it rotates. For “one of the most cutting-edge banana terminals in the world”, the lease agreement with the City of Hamburg was recently extended until 2049.
© HHLA/Engel + Gielen