LATAM Cargo Brazil is upgrading its perishable services with the construction of a cooler facility at Sao Paulo’s Guarulhos airport, significantly increasing capacity.

The perishables hub will be able to store 33% more perishable cargo than the existing hub, covering 17,620 square feet, of which 8,880 square feet will be coolers.

The facility will include two areas, one storage cooler of 5,242 square feet set at 32-36F and the other 3,638 square feet at 36-55F for storage and re-palletising purposes.

The system has the capacity to increase the temperature up to 77F in case there is a specific perishable that request a different temperature range.

LATAM Cargo says it will be able to fulfil the needs of the main perishable products exported by the region including salmon, asparagus, mangoes, cherries, berries, southern hake and flowers.

Andres Bianchi, CEO of LATAM Cargo says: “Building a new cooler facility focused on connecting perishable traffic in our main hub enables us to boost our strategic position. We can now offer our perishable customers a growing number of O-D pairs while maintaining the high quality standards associated with our value proposition. Furthermore, the increased flexibility gained with this facility enables us to work on a more efficient fashion.”

LATAM Cargo says the facility will be able to reduce the time cargo is exposed, since the re-palletising process will be done under a temperature-controlled environment and all the cargo will be stored at the same location.

More than 45% of LATAM Cargo’s volumes are perishable shipments and 14% or 24,000 tonnes transit through Guarulhos.

Claudio Torres, South America commercial vice president of LATAM Cargo says: “We are very excited to share this investment with our customers as it will greatly benefit them by providing a more robust alternative to continue expanding the perishable exports’ volume from Latin America to the world.”