Export growth prompts thoughts of second cooling facility

Permanent pre-inspection facility added ED RICHARDSON PERISHABLE EXPORTS through Port Elizabeth have grown to the point where PE Cold Storage is considering building a second cooling and storage facility. Improved facilities within the harbour, which include the PE Cold Storage warehouse opened in 2002, are offering exporters of fresh fruit the most competitive overall costs of cooling, storage, packing and delivery to quayside, according to George Efstratiou of PE Cold Storage. There has been continuous expansion of the facility since it opened, but there is no more room on the site, he says. The facility includes cold sterilisation tunnels, while the warehouse can store 3800 pallets, as well as an additional 1 400 pallets at a second facility next to the Port Elizabeth market in Markman. One of the new cold rooms has been designed to be used as a deep freeze facility with a capacity of 600 tons. A permanent pre-inspection facility has also been added. Partner Mark Jensen says exports through the facility increased by 20% over the last year. “The season started two weeks earlier than usual, with increases coming from the Langkloof as well as grapes from Upington,” he says. “Port Elizabeth is attracting perishable traffic from outside the province because it offers a faster service than Cape Town on a number of routes to both the Far East and Middle East.”