02-19-2015, 07:08 AM
quote:These are international entryway ports and they are controlled access points. For Hawaii, this is Honolulu. A lot of business is the import/export market with Asia, southeast Asia, Australia. That is why Thailand watermelons are competitive with local grown watermelon. It does take companies selling directly to Hawaii for them to have dedicated container ships, coming in full, leaving mostly empty except for recycling cardboard, cans, bottles to be actually recycled in Asia, southeast Asia and Australia. It is just weight of history that most of the fruit and produce being imported to these islands is from the mainland US, with the pipeline infrastructure that has been developed over 100 years. The corporate grocery stores stay with their mainland pipelines, and since they are US, they mainly stay US sourcing.
Originally posted by Lee M-S
Currently, a foreign ship comes to the first US port and unloads everything bound for the US, which then gets loaded onto other ships, rail cars, etc.
"Mahalo nui Pele, 'ae noho ia moku 'aina" - kakahiaka oli
*Japanese tourist on bus through Pahoa, "Is this still America?*