Deal To Keep Dole At Port Of Wilmington Is Hailed

Bananas and other fresh fruit should continue steaming up the Delaware River and into the Port of Wilmington for the next 15 years, as state and Dole officials on Tuesday confirmed an agreement in principle to keep Dole’s operations in Delaware.

Dole is the largest tenant at the port, and docks a hulking, fruit-filled vessel at the facility once a week, its contents destined for trucks that deliver them to supermarkets serving a third of the mainland U.S. population.

But Dole was weighing a move to the Port of Paulsboro in New Jersey as its new home once its lease expired with the Port of Wilmington in 2015. Both ports heavily lobbied Dole, and one of two unions in Delaware took a pay cut in an effort to keep the port competitive.

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