The first consignment of wheat this year, on behalf of the Government of India, was exported from Port Pipavav, situated in Gujarat, on Thursday.
The vessel MV Spar Canis sailed from the port yesterday with 36,750 tonnes of wheat on board, on way to the receiver, Pt. Indofood Sukses in Jakarta, Indonesia, a port spokesperson said here on Friday.
Starting this month, Port Pipavav has undertaken handling of wheat as a new bulk cargo commodity. For this, the port had tied up with the Food Corporation of India (FCI) to handle part of its wheat exports.
The cargo was stored at Central Warehousing Corporation warehouses. The channelising agent on behalf of FCI was MMTC and the trading partner was Louis Dreyfus.
Despite heavy rains at the port, the operations team achieved a much higher rate of loading than committed and reduced the turnaround time for the vessel by 26 hours, said Captain Dinesh Lokapure, Head of Bulk Business at APM Terminals, which operates the port at Pipavav.
Port Pipavav handles coal, fertilisers, iron ore, scrap and other bulk commodities. New storage space and equipment have been added to the port’s facilities to handle wheat henceforth. The port is expanding its infrastructure facilities.