Accounting for 9% of the traffic in 2023, agricultural bulk imports mainly concern manufactured fertilisers (84%) and animal feed (15%).
The investments made by EVA (Etablissement Vraquier de l'Atlantique), a subsidiary of the Sica Atlantique Group and the Maritime Kuhn Group, in storage facilities for soy bean and sunflower oil cake supplies, will enable this sector to continue its development.
At the end of 2018, the EVA Company commissioned its new Saint-Marin storage warehouse with a capacity of 50,000 tons. It is dedicated to animal feed products and ensures an optimal level of quality and safety for all services. This equipment establishes the position of La Rochelle on regular import flows of soy bean and sunflower oil cakes by providing, in addition to storage capacity, services in terms of traceability, segregation, quality control and food safety.
ATENA (a subsidiary of the Sica Atlantique Group) reorganized its logistics regularly for the solid fertilizer market. On the one hand, by reconditioning its mobile handling equipment in order to increase outputs on open areas as well as at warehouse entrances. On the other hand, by acquiring two warehouses, the storage volume available for fertilisers was maintained at 100,000 tons.
In 2021 ATENA has invested in a bagging line : this sytem allows to handle up to 4 000 t per day.