Despite the recent news from Panama about leaky locks and cargo ships being backed up on both sides of the Panama Canal for up to 11 days waiting to go through while they make repairs, it’s hard to temper the anticipation of the expanded Panama Canal in Florida. A feature article in the November December Food Logistics explores how ports and infrastructure are ready for the canal’s expansion with hopes of becoming the preferred destination of perishables from the Americas.
Florida is home to four of the country’s 10 fastest growing ports, and when the Post-Panamax ships start crossing the expanded canal sometime in the spring of 2016, those numbers are only going to rise.
According to Miami, Fla.-based import/export trade data provider Datamyne, perishables coming from Latin America and South America are already coming into Florida ports in droves. Fruit and perishables are already up 44 percent over 2014 numbers at PortMiami, and Port Everglades is the state’s largest refrigerated cargo port and seventh largest in the country, which makes it the number one gateway for trade with Latin America.
To read the entire article, click here.
