After the arrival of lychees, the crane operators of the port of Sète would like the fruit activity to be sustained and more regular

Alain Pagès et Jérôme Jenneteau, délégués du personnel, aux côtés de Ronan Kerbiguet, secrétaire général FO du port. DR

Mobilized to have regular traffic on the port of Sète, the crane operators hope that the refrigerated hangar managed by Primever will generate more fruit maritime traffic than back and forth of trucks.

After in particular the management of the cargo of lychees, at the beginning of December, the heat wave has passed on the port of Sète. But the thirty crane operators from Sète are wondering about the future and are looking for more than “a period of heavy workload over a short period”.

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“We would now like to perpetuate this traffic, explains Ronan Kerbiguet. Thanking “all the trades, from the handling chain in the fridge to the dockers and crane operators, who coordinated very well”, the general secretary of Force Ouvrière of the port of Sète expresses his impatience with the situation. “We are doing everything we can to have regular traffic. On lychees, we have improved by three days compared to last year. We are making a lot of efforts and maintaining social peace to move forward. But for the moment, we are lacking regular traffic of various containers.”

“Replace the arrival of trucks with maritime traffic”

In FO's sights, the refrigerated hangar managed since last year by the company Primever. “This is the second time we have grown lychees with them. They promised us a viable every week… We’re waiting. We’re not asking for much: a sequence of 50 or 100 containers per week with a few pallets would suit us well.”

This is not yet the case. And the future of this refrigerated hangar is intriguing. “We already have Lafarge, which takes up a lot of space without generating any maritime traffic. We are afraid that the Primever hangar will become a second blemishes in the middle of the port, without any boats arriving”, points out Alain Pagès, staff representative.

Swapping storage with trucks for maritime traffic, there is hope. “We believe in Primever, which has already invested a lot in the ripening room. But for now, we are sticking with storage”, regrets Ronan Kerbiguet