Wilmington Port Leads U.S. in Fruit, Meat Imports
Published Apr 16, 2004
The Port of Wilmington leads the nation in importing fresh fruit, meat, fish and juice concentrate.
Moroccan clementines. New Zealand apples and kiwi fruit. Australian Navel oranges. Chilean table grapes and peaches. Costa Rican bananas. Combined, they’re more than just a delicious fruit salad. They’re an economic advantage of New Castle County, thanks to the bustling Port of Wilmington.
At the confluence of the Delaware and Christina rivers, the port is the nation’s leader for imports of fresh fruit, meat, fish and juice concentrate. As a full-service deepwater port and marine terminal, the facility handles more than 400 vessels per year and 5 million tons of import/export cargo annually.
“Primarily, people think of us as handling fruits, and that is true.
We have about 700,000 square feet of refrigerated warehouse space,” says Eugene R. Bailey, the port’s executive director. “We also have another 250,000 square feet of dry cargo.” Other goods that pass through the diverse port include automobiles, lumber, steel, paper and pulp, salt, gypsum, petroleum products, bulk ores and minerals.
“Our port has a reputation of being a port of personal service, a port that takes pride in working with our customers, a port with a fantastic labor force that knows what it means to get quality cargo off the vessel as well as into the warehouses and onto the trucks in a timely fashion,” Bailey says.
He also attributes the port’s success in no small measure to its strategic and accessible East Coast location. “We are very fortunate to have a super highway infrastructure system in place,” he says. “You can go out of our gate, go down the street and make a left onto Interstate 495, which leads to Interstate 95, which leads to all the major arteries in the country.”
Located halfway between Washington, D.C. and New York City, New Castle County is central to the eastern markets. Another asset in the area’s transportation column is Am-trak passenger service. The popular Metroliner, running between the nation’s capital and New York, stops at the Wilmington station with multiple departures daily. In fact, Wilmington’s station is the ninth-busiest passenger rail station in the Northeast and 11th-busiest in the country.
The Delaware Transit Corporation contracts with the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority to provide commuter rail service between Delaware and Center City Philadelphia. Cargo rides the rails, too. Two Class I railroads serve New Castle County.
The New Castle County Airport, just 10 minutes from Wilmington, offers worldwide cargo service. Global passenger service is just 20 minutes away at Philadelphia International Airport, and the Baltimore-Washington International Airport is about 75 minutes away.
Clearly, New Castle County is identifiable as a winning locale for any transportation need. Just ask a Chiquita banana.
Story by Sharon H. Fitzgerald
Photo by Antony Boshier
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