Posts Tagged “cold storage”
2014/10/17 12:11
New Zealand imported persimmons to the U.S. has been approved….Americold will a have new huge facility in the Chicago next year.
Americold, the cold storage and logistics company, is building a 15.5-million-cubic-foot automated facility with 57,600 pallet positions.
Located at Americold’s Rochelle, IL., campus near Chicago, it will increase Americold’s global capacity.
“Working with some of our key partners, we identified the opportunity to update and expand our campus just an hour east of Chicagoland, and to offer both automated and conventional storage and distribution options,” Americold president and CEO Fred Boehler said in a news release
The company broke ground on the facility Aug. 30, and plans are to complete it in December 2018.
The facility will be 140 feet high, housing an automated storage and retrieval system attached to a conventional warehouse.
Imports of Fresh Persimmons is Approved
By USDA APHIS
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Overweight trucks legally transporting produce into the USA from Mexico might be possible, if the state of Texas eases some rules and regulations. The state and some others see a benefit of easing border congestion.
The Texas House of Representatives recently passed legislation to create an “overweight corridor” at the USA -Mexico border, and the Texas Senate is expected to vote on it soon.
The proposed corridor, from the Anzalduas Bridge to the Pharr/Reynosa Bridge, would be an area where Mexican trucks carrying fresh produce would be able to enter the U.S. even if they were overweight. Trucks would then offload their extra weight at a U.S. cold storage facility.
A Mexican truck, under current law, carrying produce that weighs too much, faces a stiff fine if it crosses into the USA.
Currently, trucks are weighed on the Mexican side of the border, and extra product is typically offloaded there if the truck is overweight. This procedure delays truck movement at the border and exposes perishable fruits and vegetables to the elements as it waits for another truck to pick it up.
Trucks that are overweight would be charged a fee, under the proposed law, which is much smaller than the current fine. The big rig would then be allowed to proceed to a cold storage facility in the overweight zone’s boundaries.
Arizona already has a similar law.
Funds from the overweight fees would be used to maintain the roads that will be carrying the heavier loads.
The on-again, off-again exclusive lease negotiations between the city and the Hunts Point Terminal Produce Market have been extended for the third time, this time through October 31st, according to a recent article on Crain’s New York Business.com.
Hunts Point is the world’s largest wholesale terminal market. Located in New York City’s, South Bronx, it is a cooperative with 115 merchants. Thousands of refrigerated big rigs deliver loads of fresh fruits and vegetables to the market each week from across the USA, as well as from Canada and Mexico.
The extended negotiations are between the Economic Develpment Corp. and the Hunts Point co-op. Hunts Point officials have been threatening to move the humongus facilty to New Jersey for years.
The incentive is a public hearing the merchants requested of city council members to discuss the city’s Business Integrity Commission, which has regulatory authority over the market. The hearing is set for Oct. 23.
Last June the federal government offered $10 million to help modernize Hunts Point. The market, which opened in 1967, faces many challenges ane the one state-of-the-art terminal is now showing its age.
Buildings are in need of renovation and a shortage of cold storage has many companies storing fresh produce in trailers parked in front and/or in back of their units. Loading docks are not refrigerated.
There are complaints trucker access into and out of the market is poor and that roads are in disrepair or just cannot handle the heavy traffic.
Everyone agrees on one thing: something has to be done. Numerous negotiations, talks, meetings, task forces and committees over the years failed to come to a solution. Politics. governments and red tape all contributed to a slow moving process.
New Jersey has aggressively made bids to move Hunts Point to the Garden State. However, the Hunts Point co-op continues negotiating with New York City on rebuilding the facility at its current location. In reality, most Hunts Point tenants prefer remain right where they are.
The current 10-year lease on the market expired in May 2011, and on June 19, 2012, the federal government offered $10 million to help modernize the large market, but first the market’s merchants and the city must agree to a new lease.
The merchants in reality have little use for New York City’s Business Integrity Commission stating the agency is assessing needless fees and penalties for various infractions, including parking violations within the market. The situation reached an impasse in late August when the merchants decided not to renew their exclusivity agreement to negotiate a new lease with the city, citing their differences with the commission as the reason.
But don’t hold your breath, it will probably be a cold day in hell before Hunts Point uproots to New Jersey, or anyplace else.