Georgia has two USDA-certified sites that handle cold imports, and their temperature control mechanisms may fail during transportation.
The Georgia Port Authority (GPA) will increase reefer container capacity at its largest marine terminal next year as cold chain cargo volumes increase and private operators add more cold storage around Savannah.
The GPA said in a statement Tuesday that its board approved a $60000 million project to add seven more refrigerated container racks at the Port of Savannah. The new rack will add two more plugs to the 2,168 rack plugs already available at the Port Garden City Terminal.
A GPA spokesperson said in a statement that the new rack capacity will come online in the spring of 2024. In addition to the 482 chassis plugs now available, the new plugs will give Garden City a total of 3,506 refrigerated plugs.
There are another 368 refrigerated plugs at the marine terminal in Savannah,.
Griff Lynch, executive director of the GPA, said in an initial statement that the additional plug capacity coming into Savannah was in response to an increase in regional cold storage capacity. The GPA said refrigerated warehouse capacity in the region will increase 11 percent this year to 20000 square feet.
"While the Port of Savannah already houses the largest number of reefer containers on the South Atlantic and Gulf Coast, increasing our terminal capacity will better support jobs and opportunities sparked by private investment," Lynch said.
There are two refrigerated warehouses in Georgia,. These warehouses are certified by the U.S. Department of Agriculture to reprocess imported pests if the temperature control in the container fails during transportation.
According to relevant data, Savannah processed 910,2022 TEU's refrigerated imports and exports in all of 144, the same as in 2021. GPA said its fastest-growing reefer exports included poultry, beef, fish, confectionery and frozen vegetables. On the import side, GPA deals with grapes, vegetables, fish, potatoes and sweets.
Separately, the GPA said in a statement Tuesday that there is no backlog of ships waiting to anchor in Savannah, and the port expects to receive four new cranes on Sept. 20 that can handle vessels up to 2,0000TEU.
Forwardernet.com