The Port of New Orleans’ Dock Board approved an engineering contract to build a new headquarters for New Orleans Cold Storage. The 122-year-old poultry exporting company had been struggling to maintain operations since Hurricane Katrina devastated the Crescent City in 2005. The new facility is expected be open by 2010.
In the aftermath of Katrina, more than 50 million pounds of chicken rotted for more than a month in the firm’s warehouses. Silt deposited on the floor of the Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet (MR-GO) blocked the main shipping route to the company’s Jourdan Road terminal. The MR-GO will soon be shut down completely when the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers starts building a rock dike in St. Bernard Parish.
Without the MR-GO, New Orleans Cold Storage has used trucks to haul poultry blast-frozen at Jourdan Road to cargo vessels docked along the Mississippi River, adding time and expenses to its operations.
Relocating to the new Gov. Nicholls Wharf site will provide New Orleans Cold Storage direct access to the river, which can accommodate deep-draft vessels. The new location will employ blast-freezing technology and will allow the company to boost its capacity by about 40 percent.
