Estonia, Good for Business, Port, Tourism, Transport

While so far, only a few cargo ships have visited the port, a company called United Loggers wants to transport up to eight shiploads of woodchips via the port by spring.

This year, five cruise ships visited the Saaremaa harbour, and in the past, during the autumn-winter period, the port has been mostly unused. United Loggers, which produces woodchips, applied for the permit of special use of water that is necessary to transport bulk goods and plans to use the port during the non-cruise ship season to transport woodchips to Sweden.

Tallinna Sadam (Port of Tallinn), which owns the Saaremaa harbour, confirms that despite an ongoing court dispute over construction of the cargo port infrastructure, the current activities are legitimate and the district court decision in this respect should come quite soon – on 14 October. "Using existing infrastructure, it is possible to serve cargo ships," said Tallinna Sadam communications manager Sitrlke Arro, adding that they are now prohibited any construction activities though.

Next summer, the port is scheduled for five cruise ship visits again.

The Saaremaa Harbour was opened in 2006 with great hopes to become a busy cruise port servicing big international cruise ships to bring thousands of tourists to Estonia's biggest island, but that activity has not been as successful as hoped for. The port's owner Tallinna Sadam has wanted to use it for cargo transport also for years but local people have so far blocked these activities.