Liverpool Produce Terminal
Port of Liverpool

A new £6 million fresh produce terminal is being built in the Port of Liverpool to put imports of fruit and vegetables closer to half the UK population and reduce truck movements and thus reduce carbon emissions on Britain’s roads. Liverpool Produce Terminal (LPT), located alongside the Royal Seaforth Container Terminal and the site of the Port’s planned £100 million-plus Post Panamax River Container Terminal, will initially offer a cost effective all-water alternative to the 300 trucks arriving in Britain with fruit from Spain every day.

This new 8,500 square metre cool store will be built by Peel Ports and operated by Go-Associates on a long term lease. This quayside facility will be equipped with four individually controlled chambers with a temperature range of -5°C to +14°C and will be able to accommodate produce four pallets high. The largest reefer vessels can be accommodated alongside the cool store which will have the capability to discharge a 4,000 pallet ship in 24 hours.

Ten million tonnes of fresh produce are shipped into the UK each year, half of it destined for the North of England, creating an economic and environmental case for bringing the cargo to the deep sea port that is closest to the population of 30 million people and is served by an inland transport network for rapid distribution direct to supermarkets.

LPT expects to be operational shortly, before the start of the Spanish fresh produce season. Spain supplies the UK with two million tonnes of fresh produce every year. A million tonnes of that is destined for the North of the UK, most of it moving by road on trucks carrying just 26 pallets each from the main growing areas of Spain. The new terminal will create the opportunity for high volume direct delivery by sea, into a state-of-the-art fresh produce terminal, ideally located at Liverpool to reach any part of this vast market within a truck driver’s tachograph driving day. Go-Associates plan to operate Liverpool Produce Terminal around the clock, employing a skilled team of 30 full time staff, supplemented to a total of 100 when a reefer vessel is discharging.