Mediterranean Shipping Co (MSC) has reached an agreement with Chiquita to transport the multinational’s fruit from Central America to the US.
A report in industry journal American Shipper said the space-sharing agreement between Great White Fleet and MSC will initially create a service using five ships owned or chartered by MSC to handle Chiquita cargo bound for the US East Coast, Gulf Coast and the Bahamas.
MSC usually docks its ships at the Napoleon Avenue Container Terminal at the Port of New Orleans. Chiquita announced in May that it intended to move its Gulf Coast operations from Gulfport, Mississippi, to New Orleans, where it has been looking for a facility or a location to build a new 40,000ft2 ripening centre.
Officials at the Port of New Orleans said last week that they did not know whether the agreement between Chiquita and MSC means that the multinational has secured the space it needs for a ripening facility.
