Enstructure says Chiquita deal is a sign of things to come at Port Wilmington (DE)

The Chiquita deal is a positive step for the Port Wilmington DE and Enstructure.

Two years after taking over the management of Port Wilmington (DE), U.S. terminal operator Enstructure says it is happy with the direction of the facility and forecasts growth not only in perishables but other cargoes as well.

The Wellesley, MA-based company points to a June multi-year agreement with Chiquita Brands International that will keep the banana giant in Wilmington as the most recent big win.

“Signing Chiquita to a multi-year agreement here in the Port of Wilmington says a lot about Chiquita’s commitment, not only here to the Port of Wilmington, but also to Enstructure, the State of Delaware, the ILA and that partnership for the future here so yeah, we’re really excited about it,” said Bayard Hogans, Regional President of the Mid-Atlantic for Enstructure, in a recent interview with the American Journal of Transportation (AJOT). “We’re continuing to make investments in the port to support not only Chiquita’s business, but other perishable cargoes and also diversify the port into other non-perishable cargoes.”

Enstructure and Port Wilmington

In June 2023, Enstructure assumed management of Port Wilmington from long time operator Gulftainer. Port Wilmington, located at the confluence of the Christina and Delaware Rivers, is owned by the Diamond State Port Corp (DSPC), a quasi-state agency whose board members are appointed by the Governor of Delaware.

“(Enstructure) is very happy about our partnership here at Port Wilmington with the State of Delaware and with the ILA here. We want to invest in the infrastructure: we want to be a good partner to the state of Delaware, to the DSPC and to labor here with investing in the facility,” Hogans said. “We want to respect and grow the perishable cargoes that have been here historically, and separately we also want to continue to diversify the port with some additional year-round cargoes for the port and grow that as part of Enstructure’s larger network of terminals and those relationships that we bring here to Delaware into Wilmington whether it’s forest products, auto Ro/Ro, or other breakbulk commodities.”

The recent Chiquita announcement only solidifies Wilmington as ground zero for banana imports from Central and South America. Last year Dole Food Company’s Mayan Express deployed an additional 1,200 FEU container vessel between Colombia, Honduras, and Guatemala and Wilmington.

In total, Dole and Chiquita handle more than 1 million tons of bananas annually through Wilmington. Both companies use the port as their mid-Atlantic distribution hub importing bananas and other tropical fruit to supply 200 million U.S. and Canadian consumers.

Peak Season

Wilmington’s peak season for Central and South America perishable cargo is traditionally from November to April. Hogans said 2024-2025 was a very strong season and included bananas, Moroccan clementines, Chilean grapes and various stone fruit. Port Wilmington normally receives more than 16 million cases of fresh Chilean fruit annually.

“The port is coming off a very strong season for perishable cargoes that has provided a very good increase in man hours,” Hogans said adding warehousing hours are up 58% and stevedoring hours up 25% in part to perishable traffic.

Hogans said Agile Cold Storage’s new 275,000 square foot, multi-temperature warehouse 12 miles away in Claymont is an example of a growing infrastructure cluster to support the import of temperature-sensitive goods. The facility is in addition to the port’s existing 800,000 square feet of dock side cold storage in six warehouses, making the Wilmington port one of the largest refrigerated warehouse terminals in the United States.

“It continues to provide capacity in this region not only for perishable cargoes but also frozen cargoes,” Hogans said. “There’s been some really good development, distribution fulfillment development really I would say if you look at the corridor from Northern Delaware, Northeast Maryland, South Central, New Jersey and right up through the Allentown, Pennsylvania. [This]area is really one of the fastest growing distribution fulfillment areas, probably in our nation. And with that we will continue to have refrigerated development in this area to support this long-standing perishable business on the Delaware River.”

Delaware Container Terminal

In the future, Port Wilmington and the new Delaware Container Terminal in Edgemoor will be poised to take advantage of growth in the life sciences/pharma sector which demands a world-class cold chain, Hogans said.

“Potentially we could handle that [pharma/life science business]. [And even] more so in the future with the development of Delaware Container Terminal we would probably start expanding into some of those other temperature-controlled commodities. But we definitely could handle those today and they’re on our radar for the Delaware Container Terminal in the future,” he said.

According to a presentation Hogans gave to the DSPC last month, construction on the $635 million Delaware Container Terminal in Edgemoor, just north of the current port on a vacant industrial site, is scheduled for May 2026 with completion in October 2028. He said a couple of major recent developments on the project include the demolition of outdated buildings at the site as well as the hiring of a joint venture between Walsh and Soletanche Bachy to do a progressive design build.

Hogans said interested parties are working with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to resolve permitting issues that held up the project in October when a U.S. district judge vacated the permits.

“We are very excited about this new public private partnership with our state and federal partners in the development of Delaware Container Terminal. [We are] excited to sign our development agreements with Walsh and Soletanche for the development of the facility there and getting that kicked off on a design and construction process. [We are] getting some demo work done up there so we’re really excited about that project. We think that facility … [at]this consumer market and distribution and fulfillment area, … will create a great gateway for the mid-Atlantic at Northeast for BCOs for the future.”

In the meantime, infrastructure development will continue at Port Wilmington including the significant expansion of plug capacity although Hogans did not have a specific number. The project includes repairing old plugs too.

“We’re definitely growing our plug capacity here in the port as Dole and Chiquita’s volumes grow… One of our key infrastructure projects is growing that plug capacity along with other infrastructure improvements that we continue to make here.”