Nolasco Salazar
Ente Administrador Puerto Rosario (ENAPRO), Argentina

Strategies to Develop Perishable and Refrigerated Cargo Services in Puerto Rosario

The Port of Rosario handled refrigerated products, fruits and citrus up until 2007, but in 2008, all the refrigerated cargo received and/or shipped were lost as a result of several different factors. A multipurpose terminal like Puerto Rosario needs to handle refrigerated cargo and capture the resulting revenue to produce benefits for the citrus producers located in the hinterland. However, to handle large volumes of refrigerated cargo, the terminal has to deal with some specific issues. The discredit of the terminal services together with the lack of confidence of producers and cargo suppliers became the most relevant problem to solve, though not the only one, along the logistics chain. How can we recover these cargoes? What actions will bring them back to our port? What are the factors that prevent us from developing this business? Why have we not been able to increase our share of the citrus exports when our terminal is the closest to the production area? I intend to give some answers to these challenges resorting to systemic research tools.