The Port of Rosyth’s new agri-hub became fully operational this week with the arrival and unloading of the Baltic Mantis, a cargo ship carrying 30,000 tonnes of animal feed from Argentina.
The development means the Fife port is now Scotland’s principal dedicated hub for agricultural produce, including an extensive range of materials for the animal feed, food and drink and farming industries.
The hub is part of a long-term partnership between Forth Ports and Cefetra Ltd, Scotland’s biggest agricultural trading company, which has an annual turnover of £1 billion and dispatches between 75,000 and 85,000 tonnes of raw materials every week and delivers 500-550 lorry loads per day.
The development required the Port of Rosyth to be deepened to be capable of taking vessels carrying up to 50,000 tonnes of cargo.
The port’s existing storage facilities also had to be extended, with the addition of a new 200,000sq ft purpose-built agricultural products terminal which increases the port’s storage capacity to around 100,000 tonnes.
Investment in a new state-of-the-art mobile harbour crane is regarded as critical to the hub’s bulk handling capability, and a Samson ecological hopper helps manage dust emissions.
Cefetra Ltd managing director Andrew Mackay said: “The agri-hub will increase the efficiency of our supply chains, allowing us to take advantage of scale and location, bringing additional benefits to our customers and to Scottish agriculture for the long term.”
Rosyth’s location and logistical links to the motorway network make it ideally suited to supply all areas of Scotland and northern England.
In addition, Rosyth, being near to continental Europe, has advantages in short sea freight.
Port of Rosyth senior manager Derek Knox said: “This new agri-hub and our new Liebherr mobile harbour crane bring together the port’s unrivalled logistics links as well as its excellent marine capability.
“It’s also great to see the new Samson eco hopper in use.”
Forth Ports Limited owns and operates eight commercial ports in the UK – Tilbury on the Thames, Dundee on the Firth of Tay and six on the Firth of Forth – Leith, Grangemouth, Rosyth, Methil, Burntisland and Kirkcaldy.
nnicolson@thecourier.co.uk
