Port Tampa Bay joins cold treatment program

The United States Department of Agriculture granted the gulf coast port approval to import select types of refrigerated produce from South America effective Oct. 1.    Port Tampa Bay was granted approval by the United States Department of Agriculture to join the cold treatment program to import grapes, blueberries, apples, pears and citrus from Peru, Uruguay and Argentina effective Oct. 1.
   Traditionally, these products were shipped into northeastern U.S. ports and then trucked to the southeast.
   USDA also recently approved the Port of Jacksonville to participate in the pilot program as well.
   “Our participation in this program dovetails nicely with our plans to develop new on-dock cold storage capacity and the new post-Panamax container cranes to be delivered early next year,” Port Tampa Bay Executive Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer Raul Alfonso said in a statement.
   The Port Tampa Bay Board of Commissioners unanimously approved a 27-year lease with Port Logistics Tampa Bay in August to develop an on-dock cold storage facility to handle refrigerated imports and exports. The initial projected throughput for the 130,000-square-foot facility is anticipated to be over 400,000 pallets a year.