A major decline in chicken exports does not bode well for tentative plans in Gulfport, Mississippi to resume a pre-Katrina business that created hundreds of jobs, according to Sunherald.com. The Mississippi port had planned to rebuild its freezer for chicken shipments, but that was before a new strategic plan reserved the space for an elevated containerized cargo operation.
The port’s Executive Director Don Allee said a chicken freezer, with the attendant trucks and traffic, would be unsuitable on a mechanized container cargo pier. Instead, he said, the port has considered turning a building on the East Pier into a temperature-controlled storage space for chicken and other perishables. “We have every desire to be back in the poultry-exporting business,” Allee said. “We just haven’t pulled the trigger on our alternate plan…. I would like to get a better feel for what poultry is going to do long term. It has to be well thought out,” Allee said. “People want jobs, but what if I build it and there’s no jobs created?”
