Port Cultivates Fruitful Partnership With George Hammond PLC

George Hammond PLC has secured a new service from Seatrade with the backing of the Port of Dover. The port will welcome Seatrade's new Rayo service from Ecuador carrying bananas for high-street supermarkets such as Morrisons.

James Ryeland, Managing Director, George Hammond PLC praised the partnership between the port and his company: "This is great news for us, we've seen steady growth over the past year and 2011 is already looking very positive with the addition of this new service. The Port of Dover have been continually supportive and offered us operational flexibility which means we can welcome these new ships and concentrate on securing new business."

George Hammond PLC, which provides fresh produce stevedoring and marine services from its base at the Port of Dover, will see over 825 million loose bananas and around 10 million melons and pineapples discharged at Dover this year for distribution to all the UK supermarkets.

Kate O'Hara, Head of Commercial and Marketing, Port of Dover said: "We are delighted to welcome the new service, this is a fantastic addition to the fresh produce trade which is operated from Dover's Cargo Terminal. Fresh produce is an important part of the port's business and one which we will continue to fully support in any way we can."

In addition Hammond's will continue to welcome the Africa Express Line (AEL), their ships carrying bananas and pineapples from The Ivory Coast, Cameroon and Ghana for high-street supermarkets including Tesco. The same ships also carry seasonal vegetables from Senegal. Fresh Del Monte also continues to ship significant volumes on the Africa Express Line weekly service to Dover. Seatrade's Seaban service also carries bananas from Colombia and Costa Rica for Tesco and Morrisons.