The Cochin International Airport Ltd on Monday exported a consignment of fresh flowers to Doha on the occasion of Qatar National Day, which falls on December 18.

The shipment of 10,000 packets totalling 53,000 kg of flowers from Kerala and Tamil Nadu has been despatched through a special Etihad freighter. The Rs 1-crore export order was executed by procuring flowers from different locations in the two States. They consisted of jasmine, lilies, polyanthus, tuberose etc.

The perishable centre at CIAL, which can handle highly perishable products, is the key selling point to attract this type of business to Kochi. The centre is capable of handling temperature sensitive products such as vegetables, fruits, flowers, marine and pharma items etc. Highly perishable goods are brought to the centre in reefer trucks in order to maintain the freshness and quality of the produce.

Established in 2009 with the financial assistance of Agricultural Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA), the centre has 25,000 sq ft area, with ambient temperature of 18 degrees centigrade.

It has computerised embedded weighing stations, separate cool rooms with a temperature range of 0 to -10 degree centigrade, 24x7 camera surveillance etc.

The centre, which is one of the largest of its kind, handles more than 100 tonnes of perishable cargo daily (mainly vegetables) on special occasions.

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