Port of Maputo gains new cold storage facilities

The Port of Maputo has gained new fresh produce cargo handling capacity with the opening of two new cold storage facilities that are ready to service customers during the 2023 citrus export season.
The latest developments come after the port restarted the flow of South African citrus via the DP World Maputo terminal for export globally to the Middle East and India and the Far East in 2022.
According to FreshPlaza, the first cold storage in the Matola Cargo Terminal, an investment by TLG, will be opened on 16 May, just in time for the start of the citrus season.
All the citrus exported via the Maputo fruit terminal originates in South Africa; there is a special arrangement for perishable products transported through the Komati border post into Mozambique.
“All Middle East and Far East cargo that are not cold treatment protocol-driven can come. We’re opening with initially 1 500-pallet capacity and probably by next year we’ll grow to 4 500-pallet capacity,” Paulo Franco, managing director of the FPT Group told FreshPlaza. FPT Group owns and operates private terminals at the ports of Durban, Gqeberha, and Cape Town.
The ZPI Cold Store is the second new Maputo facility located near Zimpeto. The cold storage facility has 1 344-pallet capacity and an ambient warehouse that can pack approximately 50 reefers per week.                                                                                                                                                                         The opportunity to export citrus via Maputo has provided citrus growers with an alternative solution to moving their cargo through the congested Durban Port that is historically one of the main ports handling citrus exports for the region.
DP World chief commercial officer, Mark Neel, said that during the 2022 season, citrus had been packed into containers at Maputo Port Fruit Terminal (MPFT) ambient warehouse or directly into reefers at South African farm/packhouse before it was shipped.
“Last year exporters had the option of direct container packing at SA farm/packhouse or sending it to the ambient warehouse at MPFT, both of which worked very well. But now for the 2023 season we have two new cold stores operating in addition,” Neel said.
 “Maputo is expecting a bumper citrus export season for 2023, three to four times larger than the volumes we saw in 2022.
“DP World will continue to invest in the port capacities to ensure volumes can grow unimpeded. Furthermore, DP World Maputo is undergoing a major expansion for Maputo where it will add 400m of deep-water quayside (16.5m draft) with new shore-to-shore quay cranes. This will be completed by the end of 2025,” said Neel.
DP World has invested in 440 reefer plugs in the terminal and has additional shipping line services to major markets with Unifeeder and ONE servicing the Middle East and India markets and CMA CGM, PIL, ONE, MSC and Maersk operating on the Far East route.
The South African citrus-growing region located just across the Mozambique border produces more than 50 000 FEUs (forty-foot equivalent units) over a six-month season. Since securing the concession to manage, develop and operate the container terminal, DP World made it clear that its ambition was to provide export and import solutions to “be the hinterland’s gateway of choice” for customers in Mozambique and neighbouring countries.