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Chilean Fruit Vessel of 2003-04 Season Calls in Wilmington |
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Wilmington,
DE - The
Port of Wilmington welcomes Delaware’s first shipment of Chilean
winter fruit with the arrival of M/V Esmeralda on Sunday, December 7th.
Wilmington, Delaware is the nation’s leading gateway for imports of
fruit and produce, and one of the major ports to receive Chilean fruit.
Port officials anticipate a busy season with increased volumes of
Chilean grapes and other deciduous fruits via weekly vessel calls
through May. Wilmington
is the preferred port-of-call for many of Chile’s largest fruit
exporters and shipping groups, including Pacific Seaways, and Dole Fresh
Fruit Co.
According to Eximfruit statistics, in the 2003 season, Wilmington
handled 17,373,000 boxes of Chilean fruit, a 24.7% increase over the
2002 season.
This winter, Wilmington anticipates an additional 10% increase in
Chilean fruit imports arriving from the Chilean ports of Valparaiso,
Coquimbo and Caldera. The increased shipments of Chilean fruit through Wilmington are associated with two factors; Chile’s favorable growing season this year and the addition of new acreage for grape production. Chilean shippers to Wilmington forecast gradual increases in cargo volumes over the next 3 years as a result of new growing areas in Chile’s Northern region. In
order to support Pacific Seaway’s and Dole Deciduous’ Chilean cargo
growth, the Port of Wilmington will allocate additional cold storage
space, this season, for these leading fruit shippers. In addition, the
Operations and Engineering departments will explore racking systems to
increase and maximize storage capacity in the terminal’s cold storage
complex. During
the discharge on Monday, the M/V Esmeralda will unload about 3600
pallets - nearly 3,600 tons of Chilean table grapes, plums, nectarines,
apricots, peaches, and cherries.
This fruit will be stored at the Port in the nation’s largest
on-dock cold storage facility for distribution to supermarkets and
retail outlets throughout the United States and Eastern Canada. This
season all Chilean fruit entering the Port will be tracked utilizing
E-Port and E-Loads, bar code based inventory control and cargo dispatch
systems created by the Diamond State Port Corporation’s Technology
Solutions Department. E-Port, an inventory control system supported by a
wireless communications network that links all Wilmington’s docks and
warehouses, allows Port customers around the world to trace the location
of their cargo in real-time from loading in Chile to dispatch from the
Port. By utilizing E-Loads importers and buyers are able, via web-based
cargo loading access, to manage the precise loadout and distribution of
cargo from the Port of Wilmington’s refrigerated warehouses to the
market. The Port of Wilmington specializes in the handling of fruit and produce. In addition to Chilean winter fruit, the Port receives over one million tons per year of bananas and tropical fruits from Central and South America imported by Dole Fresh Fruit and Chiquita Fresh two of the nation’s largest banana importers. Other fruit imports shipped to Wilmington include New Zealand apples, pears and kiwifruit for The Oppenheimer Group and Moroccan Clementines for Dominion Citrus Limited. |
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For
further information, digital photos, free tours of the Port and free
speakers contact: Vered Nohi-Becker, Marketing Services Manager
at the Port of Wilmington |
