PHILADELPHIA — The infrastructure along the Delaware River is uniquely positioned to handle imports of international fruits and vegetables. With major facilities from Wilmington, DE, upriver to Philadelphia and southern New Jersey, a network of expediters, transporters, fumigators and cold storage facilities exist that tie a bow on the import package.

Ship Philly First is a three-year-old private marketing organization designed to promote the entire region. A U.S. Coast Guard vessel makes its way up the Delaware River between Philadelphia and New Jersey, with the Camden water tower and mammoth waterfront cranes in the background, at 8 a.m. on the morning of July 3. (Photo by Chip Carter)While there is nothing unique about that, what does set the Philly crowd apart is the fact that SPF has competitors working arm-in-arm to further all interests.

There are no banquets, no golf outings, no meetings at swanky resorts — instead all dues go straight to marketing and promotion.

“I am extremely proud of this community and it has been an honor to serve as president,” said Fred Sorbello, SPF president, owner of New Jersey’s Mullica Hill Group and himself a peach and apple grower. “I’ve learned a lot. The SPF membership is comprised of some really smart and knowledgeable people with world-class facilities. We’re also good listeners. We want to learn more. We want to know what is it you’re looking for from a port community that would help us work with you. We’re not saying we’ve got everything you need — we’re saying talk to us and tell us what you need. As a result we’ve become probably one of the more powerful organizations in Philadelphia now at a trade level.”

“The ports along the Delaware River are unique and the infrastructure is very entwined,” said Ed Fitzgerald, assistant vice president of import operations for OHL Inc. and SPF treasurer. “There is the business that’s 52 weeks out of the year, like bananas. During certain times of the year there are the mountains that come in — watermelons, cantaloupe — from various countries. That lays a good foundation because it’s consistent. It’s repetition.

“Then we have the deciduous product that’s 12 months out of the year too. Spanish clementines, Preurivan grapes, the Chilean season that runs all the way from December through May. There are smaller niche commodities like summer citrus and chestnuts out of Italy. That’s what makes us unique: In comparison to other ports where it’s seasonal, here it’s year-round. The cold storage facilities and expediters are intertwined. More and more commodities are coming on. The great thing about Philly, it is a backhaul market. And depending on the product, the cold treatment has to be north of the 39th parallel latitude and east of the 104th longitude. That is basically Philadelphia. Of course we’re in direct competition with New York, but New York does not have the cold storage facilities.”

SPF member Larry Antonucci, president of 721 Logistics and its J&K Fresh East division, added, “We started our business here because of the infrastructure. We’re tired, as an ownership group and a company, that Philadelphia is considered a red-headed stepchild. As far as the service providers go and the infrastructure, the Class A railroads and other access we have, it’s very frustrating. The port just needs to be marketed better and if we can do that jointly — publicly, privately, those entities getting together and acting as one to publicize the port — we can certainly handle any kind of commodity form anywhere in the world.”

Even direct competitors are working together to promote the area’s services and benefits.

“Fred Sorbello is a friendly competitor and was the driving force behind Ship Philly First,” said Frank Manfredi of The Manfredi Cos. in Kennet Square, PA. “He asked me to join and then I went to my very first meeting and found myself sitting right next to another competitor, Rusty Lucca (of Lucca Cold Storage in Vineland, NJ). I’ve known Rusty and Fred, but as we talked and got to know each other better, we found our parents all had ag backgrounds, we all worked on farms, it was almost spooky how much we had in common.

“We are friendly competitors. If I lose a deal to Fred or Rusty I’ll have an opportunity to bid on that deal in three years. But if it the deal goes to Baltimore, none of us are getting it. We realized it’s all in our best interests to keep it here — then we’ll fight over it. So we’re not to be perceived as a threat to any other agency out there marketing the Delaware River — we just want to be waving a very big flag at a very important time as everybody’s jockeying for position.”