Riga Free Port () is a major port on the east coast of the Baltic Sea, located in Riga, the capital of Latvia.Freeport of Riga Authority (Riga) Wikimapia It stretches for along both banks of the Daugava. Within the city limits, the area of the port is , with a water area of . Navigation is carried out year-round. Most of the cargo turnover is made up of transit cargo to and from the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). The main objects of cargo handling are coal, oil products, timber, fertilizer and container cargo. While the Ventspils Free Port and Liepaja Port specialize in export, a significant part of the activities of the Freeport of Riga is import. In the early 2000s, the goods arriving at the Riga port amounted to 70 percent of the incoming freight turnover of all the Latvian ports taken together.
In 2012, the Freeport of Riga took fourth place in overall cargo turnover among the ports of the eastern Baltic (after Primorsk, St. Petersburg and Ust-Luga) and third place in container freight turnover (after St. Petersburg and Klaipeda).Maritime cargo transportation in the Eastern Baltic
History Since its foundation, Riga was primarily a trading and transshipment point, so its development was directly related to maritime trade. The first harbor for settlement was the so-called Riga lake – the extension of the river Daugava.
In the late 15th and early 16th centuries, the city's main port moved to the Daugava. The basis of commodity turnover at this time was fabrics, metal, salt and fish. Over the next 150 years, the city passed successively into the hands of the Rzeczpospolita (1582), Sweden (1629)In accordance with the Truce of Altmark and Russian Empire (1721). In the Russian Empire, the port played an important role: at the beginning of the 20th century it occupied third place among the state's ports in terms of foreign trade and first in timber exports. During each of the world wars, the city fell under German occupation. Before that, the port equipment was evacuated, and some buildings were destroyed. During the years of Soviet power, the port expanded: the container terminal, built in the early 1980s on the island of Kundziņsala, at the time of commissioning was one of the largest in the USSR.
With the arrival of Latvia's independence, the modern history of the port began.
Port turnover Year 2005200620072008200920102011201220132014201520162017201820192020202120222023Port turnover, thousands tonnes 24429.125357.625932.829565.929723.430475.634072.136051.935466.741080.440055.837070.333674.7364003280023700 18790
See also Ports of the Baltic Sea
References
External links Freeport of Riga website