The Port of Wilmington, Delaware last week received the first fresh fruit of the winter season for the United States, for distribution throughout the East Coast of the U.S. and Canada.
The fruit arrived on The Pacific Mermaid, a refrigerated vessel operated by Trans Global Shipping N.V. of the Global Reefers service. The boat’s cargo had nearly 618,500 boxes of fresh cherries, blueberries, apricots, peaches, nectarines and table grapes.
This was the sixth consecutive year Delaware has received the initial break bulk shipment of Chilean winter fruit, not only on the Delaware River, but in the U.S. The Port of Wilmington expects this season to receive at least two dozen more shiploads of fruit from the Chilean ports of Valparaiso, Coquimbo and Caldera.
Over 50 percent of the Chilean fruit sent to U.S. markets travels through Delaware River ports, with Chile becoming Wilmington’s largest refrigerated storage customer during the Southern Hemisphere growing season.
Last season, the port handled over 18.65 million boxes of Chilean fruit, a 10 percent increase over the 2013-2014 season.
More than 2,000 people work at the port and more than 750 jobs are tied to the Chilean fruit trade, which generates about $40 million in personal income for those involved and $4 million in tax revenue.