Shipping company Maersk has announced the opening of a cold storage facility in St Petersburg, developed to address the high demand for such services in the Russian market.
Construction on the facility commenced in June 2019, and the new three-chamber warehouse, designed to extend the lifespan of perishable goods, is the largest of its kind in St Petersburg.
It boasts a total capacity of more than 40,000 pallets in three chambers and uses CO2 cooling technology, which makes it the largest commercial cold storage facility in Russia to use this technology.
Frozen Capacity
The company is also developing new frozen capabilities in a separate storage chamber at the facility, which will be kept at -25°C.
As part of its cold chain management process, Maersk will also establish on-site customs clearance facilities, bonded cold storage (frozen), and phytosanitary/veterinary services, over the next few months.
The first shipment to arrive at the new warehouse contained pears from Argentina, which was unloaded into the chilled chamber operating at a temperature of 0.5˚C, Maersk said.
Maersk is expecting over 60 refrigerated containers to arrive at the new facility as part of an end-to-end service from Argentina, as well as grapes and apples from South Africa.
Commenting on the new facility, the managing director for Maersk's Eastern European operations, Zsolt Katona, said, “The full end-to-end offering will allow our customers to enjoy shorter overall lead time, predictable costs and best in class service.
© 2020 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Elizabeth Schroeder. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: The European Supermarket Magazine.
