The Maritime Terminal of Zaragoza, of Mercazaragoza, has added another 50,000 square metres to its facilities as well as a new rail transport service under controlled temperature.

Zaragoza, 1 Dec. (EFECOM).- The Maritime Terminal of Zaragoza, of Mercazaragoza, has added another 50,000 square metres to its facilities as well as a new rail transport service under controlled temperature (reefer) thus becoming the exporting agrifood logistics platform for the Ebro Valley.

The president of the Maritime Terminal of Zaragoza (Spanish acronym, TmZ) and the mayor of Zaragoza, Pedro Santisteve, presented the new service today, accompanied by the president of the Port of Barcelona, Sixte Cambra, and the general manager of Mercazaragoza, Constancio Ibañez, who unscored that this project represents a clear possibility of “extremely strong growth".

The Grupo Jorge meat firm was the first to export its products through the Port of Barcelona, Ibañez mentioned, also announcing that the firm, Vall Companys, after purchasing 10,000 square metres of cold and frozen storage, has reserved another 30,000 to centralise, in Zaragoza, the export of its production to Eastern European countries.

This new service makes the TmZ, the first hinterland maritime terminal with rail transport and cargo capacity and with controlled temperature, maintaining the cold chain at all times, to import and export fresh products to the UK market, to the north of Europe and even to Morocco.

An investment of 4.85 million Euros has been earmarked for this extension, with 35,000 square metres of marshalling yard for containers and another 15,000 for empty containers, raising the terminal capacity by around 67 %.

In addition, the rail operating system has been renewed with two new loading and unloading tracks, as well as a 9,000-square metre parking space at the terminal entrance to manage the entry of trucks.

The TmZ, which began to operate in 2001 by moving 5,000 cargo units reached the figure of 300,000 in 2015, experiencing “a radical change” to become a great agrifood platform for rail transport with cold control, the mayor stated.

Ibáñez pointed out that the objective of converting Mercazaragoza into a point for exporting products has also been achieved with the TmZ, thanks to the convergence of interests of the Ports of Barcelona and Bilbao.

He insisted on the TmZ’s growth possibilities thanks to its strategic situation and its infrastructures, and that the objective must be to make it a project like the agrifood platform of Perpignan (France).

The project has been designed to have four initial trains with temperature control per week, with 28 containers each time.

Moreover, there is capacity in the terminal for 60 simultaneous connections divided into three structures, which means that it is possible to store the capacity of more than two trains at the same time.

For the moment, the TmZ only has weekly connections with controlled temperature to the Port of Barcelona, and the objective is to establish them with other ports. It currently has 22 weekly connections to Barcelona, between 3 and 4 to the port of Bilbao, and occasional connections to the port of Valencia.

Cambra highlighted that, with this project, the Port of Barcelona satisfies its mission, marked by the three strategic plans approved to date, of contributing to the revitalisation of the economic activity in its area of influence, which Aragon forms a part of.