AEL, the shipping arm of fruit producer Compagnie Fruitière, has chartered the Mimmi Schulte to carry fruit from West Africa to the port of Antwerp. The cargo will be handled at the EuroFruitPorts terminal.
The Mimmi Schulte, built in Singapore, started by bringing 500 reefer containers to Antwerp.
As one of the latest generation of reefers the ship is highly energy-efficient, allowing the shipping company to take return loads of onions, deep-freeze potato chips and deep-freeze poultry back to Africa.
In this way Compagnie Fruitière is following the trend among fruit producers to send more and more fruit in reefer container carriers.
The two specialist fruit terminals in Antwerp, EuroFruitPorts and BNFW, have seamlessly picked up on this trend and are able to handle both conventional and container ships.
Source: Logistics Update Africa