Western Fumigation is actively involved in a number of approaches to enhance the business climate for the ports of the Delaware River.

Miriam Borja-Fisher, senior business development manager for the Parsippany, NJ-based firm, also serves on the board of — or is otherwise actively engaged in — several associations, including Ship Philly First, the Chilean & American Chamber of Commerce of Greater Philadelphia and the World Trade Association of Greater Philadelphia. Her colleagues Kurt Reichert and Barbara Hunter serve on port security committees and on the board of Philadelphia’s Maritime Exchange. Borja-Fisher noted that in the network of this port region, “Many of us wear lots of different hats.”

Ship Philly First, she said, has the mission of highlighting Philadelphia as a gateway for international trade. The promotion is to counter competition trying to take business that is already in place with Philadelphia and to develop new opportunities. Borja-Fisher went to Veracruz, Mexico, in mid-July with a Ship Philly First delegation to develop fresh produce (and other) trade with Philadelphia ports. As a member of Ship Philly First’s marketing committee, she said a key pitch in Veracruz was that cargo arriving in Philadelphia can access two-thirds of the U.S. population in one or two days. Key markets of Canada can also be reached by truck in the same amount of time.

While ports in the Southern United States are competing for Philadelphia’s business, “The market is up here,” Borja-Fisher said. “We not only have proximity to the market but the expertise is here for service providers. We are going into our fifth decade now” in serving the international produce industry. “There is a reason people still come here.”

As Borja-Fisher indicated in a May 19 Western Fumigation newsletter, the firm participated in a stakeholder meeting to discuss two proposed changes to the fees that the U.S. Department of Agriculture currently charges for fumigation treatment supervision.

The present fee structure consists of one charge for overtime expenses incurred by USDA. This charge is then prorated amongst the owners of the cargo fumigated. The current overtime rate has been maintained since 2002, but it is due to be increased by approximately 45 percent for future fumigations.

“Concurrently, USDA has proposed an additional fee of $375 per monitored treatment,” Borja-Fisher wrote. “Western has been actively working on behalf of our clients against the imposition of the additional treatment fee, both through the National Pest Management Association — of which it is a founding member — as well as directly with USDA. Western will be participating in further discussions on the topic with USDA.

Borja-Fisher told The Produce News the fee increase is very critical as USDA-APHIS tries to raise $15 million through new fees. In the Philadelphia region, all of the fruit fumigations are performed at night for safety reasons, as this is when the fewest people are present. The night work for APHIS inspectors requires overtime rates.

The $375 new inspection fee for every fumigation event, if implemented, “will significantly increase costs,” she said. The good news for those operating along the Delaware River is that one event would often involve as many as 600 pallets of fruit. The high volume would reduce the cost per unit. Borja-Fisher said the NPMA has joined the fight to keep these costs away from exporters.

In another activity, Western recently sponsored the official visit to the Philadelphia region by Richard DiNucci, U.S. Customs & Border Protection assistant commissioner for international trade. In a full-house Philadelphia meeting, DiNucci addressed a range of new initiatives designed to streamline processes affecting international trade. New priorities mapped out for the agency include ensuring uniformity in processing cargo at all the nation’s ports in order to eliminate inconsistencies in the treatment of cargo, Borja-Fisher noted. Further, DiNucci announced that by October of 2016, all cargo will be processed and released electronically through the Automated Commercial Environment system, which has been under development since the mid-1990s.