A Florida port experiences a record month for imports, while another acquisition occurs in the citrus shipping industry.
Central and South American fresh produce imports have been credited with causing a record breaking month – December -for Port Everglades in Florida’s Broward County. Those imports have been steadily increasing, according to port officials.
Port Everglades had volume of 104,590 TEUs (20-foot equivalent units), according to a news release, making December the highest output month in the port’s 90-year history.
December’s volume was 15 percent over December 2015.
“Our customers are bringing in higher volumes of consumer goods such as produce, clothing and household goods as the region’s population increases,” Port Everglades chief executive and port Director Steven Cernak said in the release. “It’s an indication of a strengthening economy.”
A good part of the increase is due to shipments from perishable products from Costa Rica and the Dominican Republic. Other regions also showed increases, Cernak said.
“Port Everglades helped spearhead a pilot program to bring refrigerated produce from South America directly to Florida, when it was previously restricted to only coming into northern U.S. ports,” Jim Pyburn, Port Everglades director of business development, said in the release. “The pilot program was a great success and now we are seeing a wider variety of produce coming to South Florida faster and fresher than when it was trucked here from the Northeast.”
Wonderful Citrus acquires DNE
Wonderful Citrus of Delano, CA has acquired citrus marketer DNE World Fruit of Ft. Pierce, FL, citrus exporter DNE International and the assets of World Pack Cold Storage, a division of DNE Imports.
Wonderful Citrus is now the top importer of counter-seasonal citrus products in the U.S. since the purchase and the move doubles the company’s grapefruit position, according to a news release. Along with DNE’s citrus marketing and import business, Wonderful acquires World Pack’s distribution center in New Jersey.
This will not be the first time Wonderful is importing citrus. The company had trials in previous years and last year, for the first time, created programs from countries including Chile, Peru, Australia and South Africa.
DNE has imported from those countries as well as others.
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