PUERTO BARRIOS, GUATEMALA – Chiquita Brands International, Inc. celebrated the inauguration of the expanded and renovated port facilities at Terminal Ferroviaria de Puerto Barrios, Guatemala in a ceremony with Guatemalan President Otto Pérez Molina.

"For more than 100 years Puerto Barrios has been a strategic point of embarkation and entry for Chiquita and Guatemala," said Ed Lonergan, Chiquita's President and Chief Executive Officer. "We are very grateful to the people of Guatemala and delighted to join with President Otto Pérez Molina whose participation has made this expansion possible. We are particularly excited about the enhanced levels of service to our Chiquita and Great White Fleet customers that will result from this investment in expanded capacity, and the economic opportunities that this will generate for the local community."

Through its Guatemalan subsidiary COBIGUA, Chiquita is the largest exporter of Guatemalan bananas and plantains, and one of the key customers of Puerto Barrios, according to a press release.  Chiquita has more than 225 container vessel calls annually at the port, and the company imports and exports more than 125,000 containers of fresh fruit, refrigerated and dry cargo and other goods.

Chiquita’s Puerto Barrios is a leader in employee workplace safety.  As of August 2014, the employees there celebrated their fifth one million work hours without a loss time incident or 1,767 days over the past five years without an employee injury. 

"Sustainability and safety commitments such as this are embedded in Chiquita's Purpose and Core Values. Puerto Barrios is an elite Chiquita team and demonstrates our commitment to safeguard the health and safety of our employees. Our target is zero occupational health and safety incidents in our operations and we congratulate Puerto Barrios on their achievement," added Lonergan.

Congratulations on this new expansion!

Chiquita