Florida's Port of Tamp Bay has received its first banana shipment after a 21-year hiatus, with Chiquita offloading almost 4,000 pallets of the fruit last week. 

The Ecuador-origin bananas arrived at the new Port Logistics Refrigerated Services warehouse, local media Tampa Bay said.

It was the first shipment of perishable products to the 135,000-square-foot facility, which was built on Hookers Point to attract shippers of fruit and other cargo requiring cold storage.

The shipment was a test run, but "we’re hoping that there will be more," Port Tampa Bay chief commercial officer Raul Alfonso was quoted as saying.

County Commissioner and port board member Sandra Murman told Tampa Bay "this is a huge deal for us," adding "I know we’re going to build on this going down the road."

A few decades ago bananas were reportedly among the ports best-known imports. According to port board chairman Steve Swindal: "It’s kind of nostalgic to think about how, as a little boy in elementary school, I would look at the bananas, and now we’ve got them coming back."

In 1989 Del Monte moved its bananas shipments from Tampa to Port Manatee, and then in 1997 Colombian grower co-op Turbana shifted its bananas imports from to Gulfport.

By 2009, with the departure of melons and cantaloupes, Tampa’s port was reportedly out of the fresh fruit business.

However, over recent years Port Tampa Bay has been working on plan for improved facilities to attract fruit shippers. Its port of entry is three days closer than Philadelphia, which has the most cold storage food facilities on the East Coast.

"Chiquita is very pleased with this first shipment of bananas through Port Tampa Bay as a new entry port for the distribution of our fresh fruit into the continental U.S. market," Chiquita Brands International logistics director Manrique Bermudez was quoted as saying.

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www.freshfruitportal.com