| News |
 |
|
|
| Agrexco on an Agro-Train to Europe |
|
A First "Green" Joint Venture Between Israel and EU Countries: For the first time, Israel and Europe have a train of fresh agricultural produce coming straight from the field in Israel to the final customer in Europe.
The goal is to minimize truck traffic on the highways in Israel and Europe, cause less harm to the environment, lower transport costs and increase the proceeds for the farmers in Israel. This is expected to take hundreds of trucks off the roads each month and to significantly boost agricultural exports.
Agrexco, the leading exporter of fresh agricultural produce in Israel, and Zim Integrated Shipping Services have joined forces in a unique, innovative "green" joint venture with Common Market countries. The aim of this joint venture is to step up the use of railroads for commercially transporting produce and to reduce truck traffic on the roads. The agricultural produce will be loaded at Agrexco’s specialized terminal at Ein Yahav, while strictly maintaining optimal humidity and refrigeration conditions in the containers to preserve the harvested freshness of the produce throughout the week-long journey until it reaches the consumer market. Preserving the cooling chain from the moment the produce is harvested until it reaches the shelves overseas is the key to the success of this venture.
The agricultural train will leave Nahal Tzin in the Arava in the south of Israel and travel direct to Haifa or Ashdod seaports, where the containers will be loaded from the train onto Zim vessels and make the marine voyage to the port of Trieste in Italy. From the Italian port, the containers will be loaded onto a 22-car train and depart for their final destination in the Netherlands. Each container will then be transported to the final customer - the central warehouse of the marketing chain.
The produce will be transported in modern state-of-the-art containers, which have just recently arrived in Israel. The containers are larger than standard and are 45 ft. long as opposed to the regular 40 ft. containers. A container of this size has the same carrying capacity as a truck.
What makes these containers unique is their ability to adjust the energy supplier, i.e. either electric motor or diesel motor. The electric motor will be used during the marine voyage and then shift to the diesel motor during train transport.
Chani Danzinger, Project Manager at Agrexco said: "I went to Europe in search of more efficient transport solutions. After all, we have to be innovative and adapt ourselves to the changing reality. Today, there is a burgeoning ’green’ trend which calls for creative solutions to encourage environmental protection and to save the planet as well as, obviously, lowering transport costs. Not only that, but super-highways can no longer be built in Europe and ways are being sought to get the trucks off the highways. With these trends in mind, we found a meeting ground to satisfy each party’s needs and managed to kick start the project with excellent cooperation between us. What is so amazing is that after searching high and low all over Europe, I found the perfect person right here - Rafael Ben-Ari, who represents the European side.
Starting 2015, Europe will be charging extra toll fees for trucks traveling on super-highways between countries.
The toll fees will be charged per km. This is a subject that is already on the agenda in Europe. I believe that joint venture that serves our needs here of lowering transport costs and minimizing environmental damage and the needs of the Europeans will indeed significantly reduce the traffic on the highways and shift the transport of produce to the railways.
|
|
|
| back to main news page |
