Cargo Business Newswire

Monday, March 2, 2015

Top Story

Chiquita keeps calling Gulfport due to congestion at Port of New Orleans

Produce giant Chiquita containers are still moving in and out of the port in Gulfport, Miss., months after the company transferred its shipping operations headquarters from there to New Orleans, the according to the Sun Herald.

After 40 years in Gulfport, Chiquita moved to New Orleans in October 2014. Chiquita’s containerized goods were supposed to be cleared out of Gulfport by Dec. 31, but Gulfport tenant Crowley is still shipping northbound Chiquita containers full of produce into the state port, the newspaper said.

Mississippi port director Jonathan Daniels told the Sun Herald that the Port of Gulfport is working with the Port of New Orleans to "alleviate congestion issues at the port of New Orleans."

Matt Gresham, director of external affairs at the Port of New Orleans, called Chiquita's transition to New Orleans on schedule. He said the New Orleans port expected Chiquita would continue to have some cargo move through Gulfport while terminal improvements are completed in New Orleans.

Chiquita, Gresham said, has also ordered

equipment for an off-site ripening facility. Until that is set up, he said, the company's ripening facility near the interstate in Gulfport is still in use.

For more of the Sun Herald story: www.sunherald.com