GT USA Wilmington welcomes Maiden Call of the MSC Capucine R

GT USA Wilmington welcomes Maiden Call of the MSC Capucine R

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GT USA Wilmington welcomes Maiden Call of the MSC Capucine R

Bearing containers of Chilean fruit, GT USA Wilmington (GTW) has welcomed the m/v MSC Capucine R to the Port of Wilmington for its maiden call of the winter fruit season. GTW tells FreshFruitPortal.com that the ship landed March 2.

According to GTW, the Port of Wilmington had a successful 2022 winter fruit season, handling around 130,000 pallets of grapes and other Chilean fruits. Now, the port “is well on track to exceed those figures in 2023.”

Capucine R was received with ceremony, as Joe Cruise, GT USA Wilmington CEO, and Robert Blackburn, GTW’s vice president, commercial, presented Captain Oleg Egorov with a plaque to mark the vessel’s first call of the season. Cruise says, “We are delighted to welcome the MSC Capucine R to the Port of Wilmington. It is a privilege to be able to continue to work with MSC and our Chilean partners to facilitate the timely distribution of fresh and delicious fruit to North American consumers.  

“We are particularly pleased to welcome the vessel in this very special year for the Port of Wilmington, as in September we will celebrate 100 years of operations,” Cruise adds. 

Capucine R was built in 2001, she is 798 feet in length and 106 feet wide, with a carrying capacity of 3430 TEUs.  

Wilmington ranks as North America’s top banana port and the nation’s leading gateway for imports of fresh fruit and juice concentrates. The Port is operated by GT USA Wilmington, LLC. which in 2018 signed a 50-year agreement to manage operations at the Port of Wilmington. 

Today the port handles over six million tons. It is a major port of entry and distribution center for the seasonal importation of fresh fruits from South America, Central America, and North Africa, along with other fruits and juices from around the globe. Cargo is stored in the Port’s 850,000 square foot on-dock refrigerated warehouse complex, one of North America’s largest facilities, before distribution to markets throughout the United States and Canada.

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