100 Business View - November 2014
Import. Export. Your Port.
Port of Palm Beach makes real progress after learning hard lessons
The Port of Palm Beach is located on Florida’s Atlantic
coast, about 80 miles north of Miami and 135 miles
south of Port Canaveral. It’s the fourth-busiest con-
tainer port in the state and the 18th-busiest in the na-
tion and functions largely as an export hub – with ap-
proximately 80 percent of its cargo heading outbound,
primarily to the island nations of the nearby Caribbean
region.
All of the nearly 900,000 tons of raw sugar produced
annually for export from Florida’s Glades Area is
shipped through the port, which has a mere 162-acre
footprint but also moves diesel fuel, liquid asphalt and
other bulk commodities and is home to the Bahamas
Celebration cruise ship, which departs every other
day to the Bahamas and accounts for the arrival of
275,000 passengers each year.
Needless to say, holding the keys to such a significant
operation is a hefty full-time job.
But since arriving six years ago – just as the facility
began feeling the impact of what’s since been labeled
the “Great Recession,” by the way – Manny Almira has
never wanted to be anywhere else.
Or… at least not once he got out of his car each day.
LOGISTICS
