Railfreight is a viable option for the produce sector, but time-efficiency must come first if it is to succeed, concluded members of the industry last week.
Hosting a visit of Fresh Produce Consortium (FPC) members to the port of Portsmouth, MMD Shipping Services director Martin Putman told freshinfo that, to get the produce industry into railfreight in a serious way, time and effort must be put aside to make it work.
He said: “We have trialled the system in conjunction with Southampton using bananas going up to Wakefield, which worked well - but unfortunately, problems with the rail provider meant we had to leave it there.”
Harry Eames, consultant at MMD, told delegates that using railfreight would be difficult using the current network. He said: “For us, rail haulage isn’t an option at the moment as we have had problems in the past going up through York to Glasgow. You have to start somewhere, of course, but at the moment the supermarkets demand that you are on time with a delivery and they don’t care how much time and effort it has taken for you to get that delivery there.”
Railfreight could prove attractive to some retailers looking to enhance their environmental credentials, but issues with loading and unloading are thought to be holding back its development.
Putman said: “In the time it takes to load and unload, we could almost be there by road sometimes. The price of haulage is much more with rail at the moment but, as a port, it’s nice to have the availability and flexibility to employ it in the future. We have started the first railfreight for 30 years from Portsmouth and hope we can move into produce at some point.”
Nigel Jenney, chief executive of the FPC, told freshinfo: “There are some businesses where there are definitely railfreight possibilities, but it needs to be efficient and cost-effective. If it has those two things first, then the retailer will start looking at the benefits of the ‘green’ effect and the image it projects.”
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