Tiny Port Finds Niche That Lets It Thrive in Midst of Big Competitors
The tiny Port of Hueneme in Ventura County traces its ancestry to the 1870s, when farmers on the fertile Oxnard plain built a wharf to ship out their crops.
Last week, a new customer docked there: the New Zealand Reefer, a ship bearing summer grapes, peaches, apricots and nectarines from Chile. It will be followed this week by another Chilean shipment aboard the Brazilian Reefer.
Both vessels, and others due in the next seven weeks, used to call at the Port of Los Angeles.
But the fruit arrives packed in boxes on pallets, a form of bulk freight no longer eagerly sought by bigger ports seeking to specialize in containerized cargoes, said Robert K. Harmuth, the port’s operations director.
That kind of freight is fine for the Port of Hueneme, however. “We can’t build a container terminal up here because we just don’t have the room,” Harmuth said.
Imported fruit can pose an additional problem for ports because, unless it has been cleared by the U.S. Department of Agriculture before shipment, it must be inspected for infestations on the dock--which lengthens the unloading time and requires substantial warehouse facilities.
This fruit was inspected before shipment, however, Harmuth said.
“It’s somewhat on a trial basis,” Harmuth said of the new shipments. “If we do well all the way through (the seven weeks), we’ll stand a good chance to get the entire season next year.”
According to the Chilean Winter Fruit Assn., about 550 million pounds of fruit will enter this country from Chile through mid-May--the period before California vines and trees begin bearing.
About 80% of the produce comes in through East Coast ports; the remaining 20% is coming in through the ports of San Diego (40%), Los Angeles (40%), Port Hueneme (15%) and Seattle (5%).
It is Los Angeles’ current share that the smaller port covets.
The Chilean freighters join existing weekly arrivals of bananas from Del Monte and United Fruit and cars imported by Mazda.
The port also receives periodic shipments of lumber from the Pacific Northwest and wood pulp from Brazil, while exporting California and Arizona citrus as well as wheat seed bound for Saudi Arabia.
The port also services the off-shore oil rigs in Santa Barbara Channel, Harmuth said, adding, “We’re trying for another car contract.”
The Port of Hueneme, which is virtually surrounded by the city of Port Hueneme and adjacent to Navy port facilities, plans to nearly double its capacity for handling large vessels. At times, it now shares the Navy’s dock.
“We brag about how good our longshoremen are,” Harmuth said. Los Angeles longshoremen lift an average of 35 crane loads out of a ship’s hold per hour, he said. compared to “over 50” at the Port of Hueneme.
