Chiquita Brands International announced it would relocate its shipping operations from the Port of Gulfport to the Port of New Orleans, returning after a 40-year absence. The move was celebrated by both the maritime industry and local community. At a press conference with Governor Jindal and Mayor Landrieu, Chiquita senior VP Mario Pacheco said the company would use the same Thalia Street Wharf that was previously used to discharge bananas from United Fruit vessels for over a century. Retired longshoremen who worked the docks in the 1950s-60s reminisced about carrying banana stalks as the company returns to its original New Orleans operations.

1. When Chiquita Brands
International announced the
company was returning to New
Orleans after a nearly 40-year
hiatus, the move was
celebrated as a big win by both
the maritime industry and the
local community.
And the memories started
flowing…

2. Chiquita announced it would be relocating
its shipping operations from the Port of
Gulfport to New Orleans at a May 14
press conference held at Port of New
Orleans headquarters on the Thalia Street
Wharf — the same wharf where dock
workers discharged bananas from United
Fruit vessels for the better part of a
century.
Gov. Bobby Jindal was joined by Chiquita
Brands International Inc. Senior Vice
President Mario Pacheco, Mayor Mitch
Landrieu, Port of New Orleans Board of
Commissioners, Port President and CEO
Gary LaGrange and other elected and
industry leaders for the announcement.

3. Kenneth Crier, President of the International Longshoremen’s Association Local 3000, gathered a handful of
retired dock workers and banana workers for a visit to the Port of New Orleans headquarters on the Thalia
Street Wharf for old time’s sake. From left: Chris Hammond, Financial Officer for the ILA Local 3000;
Kenneth Crier; Wesley Samuels; Glenn Alfred; Joe McSwain; and David Browder.

4. Retired longshoremen, who started working the docks in the 1950s and 1960s sit along the Mississippi River
recalling stories of carrying stalks of bananas up from the ship’s hole to the conveyor belt on the wharf. From
left, by their dock worker nicknames: “Bones” (Glenn Alfred), “Baton Rouge” (Wesley Samuels), “Little Dave”
(David Browder), and “The Big Hands Man” (Joe McSwain).

5. ILA Local 3000 President
Kenneth Crier shows off a
badge stamped with the
words “Banana Worker of
New Orleans. Reg. 1954.”
It belonged to his father,
Eddie “Hercules” Crier, a
retired longshoreman who
worked at the Port of New
Orleans from 1954 to 1993.

6. Chiquita Brands Senior Vice President Mario Pacheco talks to Kenneth Crier, President of the ILA Local
3000, and Robert Landry, Port of New Orleans Chief Commercial Officer at the press conference
announcing Chiquita’s return to New Orleans. Pacheco was moved when Crier showed him the original
banana workers badge from 1954 that belonged to his father, Eddie Crier.

7. For most of the 19th century, the banana trade, led by Chiquita (formerly United Fruit and United Brands), was
eminent along the riverfront and in the economy of New Orleans. This scene at Erato Street Wharf offers a
glimpse of United Fruit’s operations at the Port of New Orleans in the early 1900s.

8. Photos by Tracie Morris Schaefer and Port of New Orleans Archives.