This week, the London Container Terminal (LCT) in Tilbury welcomed a new dedicated reefer* container service bringing fresh food directly into the UK from Morocco.

The weekly Samskip service commenced this week when the Samskip Toubkal made its first call at LCT with its cargo of fresh produce, including tomatoes and citrus fruit headed for the UK’s supermarkets.

Samskip’s Moroccan Reefer Service is a weekly shortsea container route connecting Agadir and Casablanca directly with Tilbury and also the Netherlands. The service is the only container service on the market fast enough to carry fresh vegetables and offers an 80% CO₂ reduction compared to road transportation.

Commenting on the new service, Ross McKissock, Director of Unitised from Forth Ports, said: “The arrival of Samskip’s Moroccan service consolidates our prime position in the reefer market for time critical produce for the country’s largest consumer market. Our facilities at LCT on the Thames provides a fast, low carbon, reliable and cost-effective alternative to trucking from Europe, showcasing the major benefits of our specialist deep-sea offering.”

London Container Terminal is a busy facility handling 500,000 teu twenty foot equivalent containers) each year and has over 1,400 reefer points.

*reefer is an industry name for a refrigerated cargo container