Costa Rica may start shipping to Port of Cleveland
April 14th, 2008 | by admin |
CLEVELAND — Rising diesel prices may convince a Central American country to divert exports from Miami, Florida to Cleveland, Ohio.
Down at the Port of Cleveland, the longshoremen are masters of unloading the salties, the big ocean going freighters. With the Great Lakes open, the ships arriving in port are on a tight schedule.
In Cleveland Friday the docks were busy as huge 15 ton coils of steel were unloaded from the Netherlands. But by this time next year, the crews could be handling big containers of pineapples from Costa Rica.
For many years companies in the Central America would ship almost everything to the overcrowded port of Miami, Florida. The merchandise would be trucked or sent by train across the country.
But now skyrocketing diesel fuel prices are changing the business model for shippers. It now makes economic sense to keep the containers on a ship and bring the load directly to the Midwest via the Port of Cleveland.
The new plan would have the huge container ships go from Central America up to Halifax, Nova Scotia. Then smaller freighters would take the goods via the St. Lawrence Seaway to Lake Erie.
Steve Pfeiffer, the vice president of Maritime Services at the Port of Cuyahoga, says it makes sense to use Cleveland at the gateway to the Midwest.
“We have such an amazing asset with Lake Erie and our great port in Cleveland,” said Pfieffer. “Because not every community has that. There are no red lights from here to the rest of the world by water.”
At the Cleveland’s famous West Side Market, the idea of shipping those boxes of pineapples from Costa Rica directly to Cleveland and skipping Miami is a winner.
Vendor, Mina Eskander told Channel 3′s Mike O’Mara, “instead of buying the whole box of pineapples for fifteen dollars, maybe it will cost us ten. We can sell it for less and more of our customers are happy.”
Vendors hope that the Costa Rican-Cleveland conneciton catches on. Cleveland Mayor, Frank Jackson, who helped negotiate the new deal with the President of Costa Rica, is determined to spread the message.
“We can’t just keep waiting around and expecting people to discover us,” Jackson said.
Sam Ibrahim, a produce stand owner, said “if they bring it from Miami, that means someone in Miami is making the money. But if it’s coming direct to Cleveland, that’s what we need.”
Costa Rica exported $3.8 billion to the United States in 2006, according to the U.S. Department of commerce.
