Notable New Orleanians: A Tricentennial Tribute

Historically, the port has been a leading
U.S. hub for imported coffee and is home to
the world’s largest coffee processing facility,
J.M. Smucker Coffee Silo Operations. All of
Folgers coffee, a subsidiary of Smuckers,
comes through the port and is roasted at a
large coffee roasting plant in New Orleans
East. In fact, enough coffee is imported annually
at Port NOLA to fill 20 billion cups.
Port NOLA continues to solidify its reputation
as America’s most intermodal port, meaning
it has various containers for freight that
can be transloaded from one mode of transportation
to another during shipment without
being unpacked. The year 2016 marked the
second time in a row that Port NOLA saw
growth by topping more than a half million
twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) handled
at its container terminal. A TEU is equal to a
standard twenty-foot container and carries
many of the items we use every day from
clothing to electronics.
In 2017, Port NOLA took a major step in
enhancing its global competitiveness by planning
to acquire the New Orleans Public Belt
Railroad (NOPB) from the City of New
Orleans. The NOPB is a switching railroad
with the primary mission of serving Port
NOLA and local industries.
In 2017, Port NOLA broke the million-passenger
milestone for the fourth year in a row,
handling a record 1,150,172 passenger movements
at its two state-of-the-art cruise terminals.
With a growing demand for cruises from
the Big Easy, cruise lines responded by deploying
newer and larger ships to New Orleans.
Carnival and Norwegian Cruise Lines sail to
Caribbean destinations and Royal Caribbean
Cruise Line will return in December 2018.
Port NOLA also owns industrial real estate
with over 1,000 acres of properties that lease
under long- and short-term agreements. Most
of the properties are on or near the Inner
Harbor-Navigation Canal (Industrial Canal)
with convenient access to the interstate highway
system, waterways and the Public Belt.
Appointed by the governor, a seven-member
board of commissioners sets policies and
regulates river traffic and commerce for the
port. In 2017, the board appointed Brandy D.
Christian president and chief executive officer.
Port NOLA’s opportunities for continued
growth are great with a strategic master plan
that will lay out a vision for the next twenty
years. The master plan will include a roadmap
for growth, including recommendations for
capital investments, operational changes,
policies and strategic initiatives.
Planning for growth goes hand-in-hand
with environmental sustainability for the
port. In 2015, Port NOLA became the eighth
U.S. port to receive Green Marine certification,
North America’s largest voluntary
environmental program for the maritime
industry. As Port NOLA looks to the future, it
will with an emphasis on continuous
improvement and leadership on air emissions
and community impact.
The port’s high cranes and stacks of containers
reach into the sky, visible from New Orleans’
Uptown residences and businesses. With many
opportunities and a roadmap for smart growth,
the City of New Orleans and its port will continue
to thrive together, side-by-side.
Top, right: America’s most intermodal port.
Above: Port NOLA has two state-of-the-art
cruise ship terminals.
THE MARKETPLACE
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