Country’s largest import of cocoa and coffee beans – CWT Commodities – is building the facility at the Port of Liverpool to import more products for the UK’s food and drink manufacturers. Tony McDonough reports
A huge warehouse is to be built at the Port of Liverpool to meet the UK’s insatiable demand for chocolate and coffee.
The country’s largest import of cocoa and coffee beans – CWT Commodities – is leasing land from port owner Peel Ports on which it is constructing a 36,000 sq ft warehouse and new offices. This is in addition to the eight warehouses it already has on site.
Mazdon Construction has already started work on the facility which is expected to be completed later this year. It will accommodate growing demand from food and drink manufacturers in the UK.
In Britain we eat an estimated 660,900 tonnes of chocolate a year, an average of 11kg per person per year.
Almost 65,000 tonnes of cocoa beans, more than two thirds of the UK’s demand, arrive via Liverpool each year due to its proximity to factories in Yorkshire and North Wales.
The port also handles around a third of the UK’s annual 150,000 tonnes of coffee bean imports. Approximately 80% of the cocoa and coffee beans arrives in containers, with the remainder in bulk vessels.
The cocoa beans largely originate in Africa, mainly Ghana and the Ivory Coast, with the coffee coming mainly from Vietnam, Brazil, Colombia and Indonesia.
Jason Cross, director of CWT Commodities UK, said: “The Port of Liverpool is strategically important to us due to its geographical location resulting in reduced inland transport costs and carbon footprint for the supply chain involved in delivering to the factories.”
Andrew Martin, Peel Ports Group land and property director, added: “This further investment by CWT reinforces the Port of Liverpool’s premier position as the logistics hub that connects food and drink manufacturing and processing centres across the northern half of the UK.”