The Port of Wilmington's top banana - Dole Fresh Fruit Co. and the 65 million pieces of the yellow fruit it ships there each week - could be lost to the competing port across the Delaware at Paulsboro.
After 30 years in Wilmington, Dole is considering relocating one ship a week - 3.4 billion bananas a year - to a new port being built on 190 acres in Paulsboro.
For Paulsboro, landing Dole and gaining 100 to 120 direct port jobs, as well as the trucking and related businesses catering to the fresh-fruit trade, would be a major shot in the arm.
Delaware and the Diamond State Port Corp. are striving to retain Dole, whose lease expires in December 2015. Dole expects to decide by early September.
New Jersey has offered Dole tax-incentive credits for bringing jobs to the Garden State "that are very financially appealing," Jablon said.
When South Jersey port officials solicited a "request for information" from potential tenants, Dole took a look. Preliminary blueprints were drawn. "They got excited. We got excited. We'd bring a lot of labor there," Jablon said.
Ground was broken in 2009 for the Paulsboro port, the first new port on the Delaware in decades.
"We hope they stay," said Delaware's Levin of Dole. "We're trying to make sure they do."
