The Functional Area of Agriculture of the Government Delegation in Aragon already provides the service of inspection and issuance of export certificates in the eastern area of the province of Huesca. The subdelegate of the Government in Huesca, Silvia Salazar, visited today the Intermodal Terminal of Monzón (TIM), in whose facilities she has known the work carried out by the veterinary inspectors of the State.
Identity and physical checks are carried out in the LAME (Authorized Local for Export Goods) existing in the TIM, located in the Polygon La Armentera of the capital of Cinca Medio. This service, which started in January and has been fully activated this month, is provided in person once a week, every Thursday, and telematically for the rest of the days (documentary control). If necessary, if the demand so requires, the service would be extended to other days of the week.
The subdelegate of the Government in Huesca explained that, with the implementation of this service, “there is a response to the high demand for an agri-food inspection that existed in the area, in line with the intense activity carried out by sectors as important for the province as large slaughterhouses or alfalfa dehydrators, as well as other derivative industries, all with a high export component to both the European Union and Asian countries, mainly China.”
For Salazar, “the effort made by the Government Delegation in Aragon and its officials to open this service in Monzón responds to the will to offer our agri-food industry all the facilities to gain competitiveness and positioning in the international market.” Thus, the subdelegate pointed out that “carrying out the inspection here allows to speed up exports, because the goods arrive at the seaports ready to embark directly and with all the guarantees”.
The inspection service is currently carried out by two officials displaced from the Zaragoza Area, but it is expected that it will soon have two exclusive inspection places for the province of Huesca. In this regard, Salazar stressed that “the commitment of this Government and the Ministry of Agriculture is firm, because we speak of an area with enormous export potential and to promote a means of transport, the railway, which contributes decisively to the objectives of environmental sustainability”.
55,000 containers in 2022
Through the intermodal platform TIM, promoted by the company Terminal Intermodal Monzón, whose shareholders make up the SAMCA Group and public, railway and maritime companies, of the Spanish logistics sector such as the ports of Barcelona and Tarragona and RENFE through LogiRAIL, goods produced mainly in the regions of Cinca Medio, Litera, Bajo Cinca and Somontano are transported.
In 2022, the platform recorded movements of 73,500 TEU (unit of measurement used in foreign trade to calculate the loading capacity of standard 20-foot containers), equivalent to 55,000 containers in 1,100 trains, of which almost 30% are “reefer” refrigerated containers. With a joint annual movement of around 425,000 tons, the growth experienced by the agroTIM bulk terminal stands out, reaching around 50,000 tons in 2022.