With the ability to deal with up to 3500 pallets from a vessel in an eighteen-hour period, the facility can also handle product arriving by road or container.

A further advantage of the produce-dedicated terminal is its direct links with rail. Trade manager for fresh produce, Brent Stephen said: 'As a port we have always had an interest in rail and last year we opened up a rail head in Portbury. Avonmouth also has rail links and we have been able to establish a rail route in order to get the product off the road. We've had a lot of onions come through from Chile and for the first time we were able to arrange for them to go by rail at very competitive rate - it's very cost effective method.' So that fruit can be handled without harm all handling equipment on the vessels, the quay and in the terminal are electric. Storage is provided in nine separate cells, each with a mixture of single access beam racking and drive-in racking. Racked storage totals 8080 pallet spaces.

The facility is also segregated into five discreet areas in terms of fire protection and refrigeration plant, and offers four dedicated QC rooms. Stephen added: 'Our facilities are all brand new and we have dedicated QC rooms in which all lighting is pure white so that inspections can be carried out under proper conditions.' All pallets will be scanned into the facility using the pallets own barcode - or the pallet will be assigned a barcode. At the point of receipt the pallets will be sent to pre-allocated store locations for direct loading or to a QC area for inspection. All storage locations are bar coded allowing movements to be recorded in real time.

The terminal has been operational since last November and Stephen confirmed: 'With the continued commitment from shipping lines, growers and receivers all signs are that we will continue to grow. Our main advantage, and one that we will be marketing is that we are close to 70 per cent of RDCs.' For customers who do not wish to access their stocks over the internet the terminal can provide reports in excel format by e-mail or by fax.

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