The Port of Hueneme, in California’s Ventura County, is known as the Banana Port of the West Coast, but a new service is certain to increase blueberries at the port.
The facility is a specialized reefer port and has been able to receive completed cold-treated produce, according to a news release.
Now Port of Hueneme will offer the ability of completing the treatment on-port, the first of its kind on the West Coast.
It will reduce the cost of transporting blueberries for Peruvian blueberry exporters, who can now ship directly to the port.
“This new opportunity is not only a game changer for our blueberry partners, but also will help reduce air emissions across the U.S. and spur local job creation, a win-win-win,” Jess Ramirez, Oxnard Harbor District Board president, said in the release.
The new service has started as a one-year pilot, and is expected to eliminate more than 2.2 million of road miles that the berries would have traveled to reach the West Coast. Instead of shipping to East Coast ports, and trucking the berries across the country, Peruvian blueberry exporters can ship directly to the West Coast.
Kristin Decas, CEO and port director, thanked the U.S. Department of Agriculture, California Department of Food and Agriculture and Ventura County Agricultural Commissioner Ed Williams for working to bring the program to the port.
In recent years, a number of East Coast ports, including Port of Savannah (Ga.), Port of Virginia (in Norfolk), Port of Wilmington (N.C.) and Port Canaveral (Fla.) were designated by the USDA as participants the In-Transit Cold Treatment Program, which allows entry of fruit that underwent a cold treatment period on the water before arriving at the port.
