India Delivers Grapes To Russia’s Consumer Market Via Shanghai & Vladivostok

Russia’s FESCO transport has delivered refrigerated Indian grapes to the Russian consumer market for the first time, replacing EU sourcing markets, while continuing to buy grapes from Central Asia.

The 80-tonne shipment was loaded into four forty-foot refrigerated containers at the Indian exporter’s warehouse. The consignment was then transported to the Nava Sheva port near Mumbai. The nearby Indian state of Maharashtra is a major fruit-growing region known for its grapes and wines. At Nava Sheva, the grapes were reloaded onto a FESCO vessel and shipped to Shanghai by the FESCO Baltorient Line (FBOL) maritime service.

In Shanghai, the grapes were reloaded onto another container ship of the group, which went directly to Vladivostok Commercial Sea Port under the FESCO China Direct Line (FCDL). The transit time from Nava Sheva to Vladivostok was 35 days. From Vladivostok grapes can be delivered all over Russia along the Trans-Siberian Railway, along which there are five Russian cities with a population of over 1 million people, 9 – with a population from 300 thousand to 1 million. The route ends at the Yaroslavsky railway station in Moscow, which has been considered the beginning of the Trans-Siberian railway for about 70 years.

Andrey Grechkin, CEO of Dalreftrans, who organised the logistics, said that “Indian grapes are a seasonal product that can be exported to Russia from December to April. We see great potential in the new route, because Vladivostok is also a logistics hub from where goods can be shipped to other Far Eastern regions via coastal routes.”

FESCO is actively developing shipments in refrigerated containers. In early March, Dalreftrans sent refuelling containers from Novorossiysk to two new destinations – Hamad (Qatar) and Shuwaih (Kuwait). It already ships perishable foods from Moscow to Jebel Ali in the UAE.