Preparations are under way across Humber ports ahead of the arrival of grain imports to plug gaps left by wet weather’s impact on the UK harvest.
Hull and Immingham operator Associated British Ports (ABP) says it is working with several major agri bulk players that handle agricultural commodities in readiness for overseas shipments coming to the river. The company says it has forged long term relationships with the likes of Frontier, Viterra, and Cefetra and will put to use well invested facilities which boast storage and handling capabilities thanks to spending in recent years.
The two ports are said to have seen as much as £30m invested in recent years, with Immingham having standard storage assets converted into specialist grain import and export facilities, and a 38,000-tonne shed for storing grain and soya built at Humber International Terminal. Two large break bulk sheds have also been converted to enable import handling in both Hull and Immingham.
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The Humber’s role in the country’s food supply chain comes as a report publish by the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit earlier this year pointed to a potential reduction of four million tonnes in the UK’s harvest of wheat, barley, oats, and oilseed rape, compared to 2023. That is owing to the winter being one of the wettest on record.
Simon Bird, the outgoing regional director of the Humber Ports, who is stepping down in the autumn, said: “The investments over the years have been future proofing the Humber ports and giving our customers the confidence that we can give them what they need in terms of capacity, reliability and efficiency.
“It’s been a particular source of pride to me over my time as regional director for ABP’s Humber ports that we’ve invested tens of millions of pounds to grow the ability of the ports to play their part in such a fundamentally important role for the UK. Our ports are the gateways to feeding the nation and making sure the economy keeps moving and growing – Keeping Britain Trading in such an important way.”
ABP said there has been significant investment in grain handling operations on the east coast, under Mr Bird’s tenure. Last year two metal plate bunds for grain handling were installed at the Port of Immingham.
Original artice – https://business-live.co.uk/all-about/yorkshire-humber
