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Perishable cargo centre to boost agro exports

Nedumbassery: The newly inaugurated Centre for Perishable Cargo (CPC) at the air cargo complex of the Cochin International Airport Ltd. (CIAL) is expected to give a boost to the movement of perishable cargo and take the airport into the big league by attracting global players and international freighter aircraft, according to company officials.

Though the bulk of passenger movement from Kerala is through this airport, the movement of perishable goods from here is lagging behind the other two airports. While the figures for the Thiruvananthapuram and Kozhikode airports stood at 86 per cent and 92 per cent respectively, it was only 58 per cent at the CIAL.

“The company has already placed an order for 50 containers and after they arrive, there will be a quantum jump in the total volume of perishable cargo exports from here,” said George Koshy, officer on special duty, CIAL.

With the CPC, which has capacity to handle around 25,000 metric tonnes of cargo annually, the CIAL aims to increase its present volume of agro products export from 10,000 tonnes to 30,000 tonnes by 2015. The company officials anticipate a development of farming for export in its ‘catchments area’ by entering into a buyback and production agreement between the exporters.

The proposed plant quarantine facility by the Centre as a support to the CPC would also ensure that quality standards of export material are maintained. They also foresee forward linkage of a growth in packing and bulking centres in different parts of the State to enable the farmers to stock their material.

The CPC, spread over a floor area of 22,000 sq. ft, has been divided into three main segments consisting of receiving bay; weighment and computerised examination bay; and security-cum-stuffing bay. The CPC has facilities for temperature and humidity controls required for perishable cargo, including vegetables, fruits, and flowers, and for non-vegetarian items, three separate cold storages with total of capacity of around 30 tonnages have been set up.

The exportable goods are offloaded from the reefer vehicles at any of the six docking bays in front of the CPC, where one bay is dedicated exclusively for receiving frozen cargo. From there, the goods are carried up to the sterile area on trolleys and the entire operation is carried out by a system of remote-controlled and IT-enabled movement mechanism under camera surveillance. After X-ray and security clearance, the goods are loaded on the containers and pallets that are lifted down by special devices on the airside.

The installation works of the Electronic Data Interchange Message Exchange Services (EDIMES) to enforce an IT- enabled Customs clearance system along with the CPC has already begun. “The hardware installation is almost complete and after providing due training in software and some related activities to the staff, the system is expected to be operational by the end of April or May,” said the officials.

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