Belgium’s Port of Antwerp handled an estimated 1.3m tonnes of fruit during 2008, marking a 1 per cent rise over the previous year, and consolidating Antwerp’s position as the largest fruit port in Europe, according to officials.
Overall, 190m tonnes of freight were handled at the site during 2008, a figure that represents a 4 per cent increase over the previous year’s total, and officials are confident that the growth trend will continue into 2009.
In a statement, Antwerp Port Authority said that the “outstanding” figures represented the seventh consecutive year of growth for the facility.
The Port Authority said the figures for the first nine months were “excellent”, and while the last quarter clearly showed the effects of the downturn in the world economy, the Port of Antwerp continued to do relatively well.
The figures show that last year more than 100m tonnes of containerised freight was handled for the first time, said officials. The container volume rose by 7.7 per cent to nearly 102m tonnes. In terms of TEU (twenty-foot equivalent units) the container volume was up by 6 per cent to more than 8.6m TEU.
Antwerp Port Authority expects that the general trend over the last three months of 2008 will continue during the first half of 2009.
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