The revamping in Fiorenzuola d'Arda (Piacenza), a plant founded in the 1970s as the logistics centre of a local feed company, was recently completed. It was purchased in 2009 by Cereal Docks aiming to turn it to a strategic commercial hub in the heart of the Po Valley.
The project to strengthen the structure began with the introduction of warehouses, followed by the expansion of the internal railway line and the offices refurbishment. Finally, in the early months of 2019, the new train unloading lines and the raw material weighing and cleaning tower were built.
The increasing storage capacity to 38.500 tonnes, with 4 flat warehouses and 16 silos will ensure greater continuity and efficiency of supply for customers. The internal railway line allows faster and more efficient connections with the Eastern European countries where the raw materials come from, in especially cereals, which are stored in the plant waiting to be marketed on the territory.
Following revamping, the plant can handle up to 18/20 trains per month with a 1.250 tonnes capacity each, 40% more than the the past. This increasing efficiency also has an impact in terms of CO2 emissions: a railway train produces about 26.8 kg of CO2 per kilometre, 60% less than a truck, transporting much more goods in a single train.
Since 2015, the plant in Fiorenzuola has received the GTP certification (Good Trading Practice), a system that guarantees quality and safety throughout the food chain: collection, transport, storage, industrial processing, right up to the final consumer.
Protecting food safety is a priority for Cereal Docks: in collaboration with the Group Lab team, the Group's new quality control centre, the Cereal Docks team performs an accurate sampling of products in the loading/unloading flow, ensuring the total absence of polluting agents and mycotoxins, to provide safe and high quality products.
In the future, Fiorenzuola will be the reference point to serve the customers of the food and feed industries in the Po Valley. Finally, in the coming months, experimentation will begin with the new digital management booking system for the loading and unloading process, which will make the registration, control and validation of incoming vehicles easier while speeding up the flows in and out of the plant.
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