Kurt Reichert promoted at Western Fumigation
Kurt Reichert promoted at Western Fumigation
Kurt Reichert has been promoted to director of fumigation for Western Fumigation, which is headquartered in Parsippany, NJ. Western Fumigation is one of the major fruit fumigators serving the ports of the Delaware River.
Kurt Reichert
Reichert has been with Western for 25 years. He started with the company as a technician. He said he is the first person in the company to have made such an internal rise in the ranks.
In addition to the fumigation division, Western also has a pest control division.
The bulk of Western’s fumigation business relates to the ports of the Delaware River. Chilean fruit is the largest-volume commodity fumigated by Western, with various other items needing fumigation as prescribed by USDA phytosanitary inspectors. Western also treats the large-volume cocoa bean import business arriving on the Delaware River. The company also has fruit export accounts in Norfolk and Newport News, VA.
Western Fumigation was founded in 1928. The fumigation division was launched in the early 1980s to serve the new, rising volume of the Chilean fruit business arriving in the Philadelphia area.
Because of increased Chilean winter fruit volume this past season, Western Fumigation’s business “is definitely better” than the previous season, Reichert said. “If you look at the past 10 years, this was an average season when you’re speaking of Chile.”
In addition to cocoa and fruit, Western fumigates wood products, such as packing materials, pallets and bracing for export. Wood products arriving into the United States that have not been fumigated are automatically required to be re-exported, Reichert said.
