New sugar warehouse opens at Port of Harlingen

HARLINGEN - A new sugar warehouse at the Port of Harlingen means lower costs and more effective shipping methods for growers.

The Sam Sparks Warehouse, at 60,000 square feet and 60 feet tall, can hold about 36,000 tons of sugar, according to Steve B. Bearden, CEO of the Rio Grande Valley Sugar Growers Inc.

The warehouse allows for daily sugar shipments from the mill in Santa Rosa. The lack of loading-site storage space previously limited the amount of sugar that could be taken to the port each day, Bearden said.

"We would hire trucks every two to three weeks when the barge train came in," he said. "We would dump it out on the dock ... put it into a conveyer and load the barge. It was very slow and if it rained we'd have all the sugar out there on the dock and it was a mess."

Bearden said sugar barges travel up the Arroyo Colorado, into the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway and along the Mississippi River to Chalmette, Louisiana, where it is turned into Domino brand sugar.

And weather is no longer an obstacle with the covered warehouse.

"Now we can store it here ... available for barges ... under cover," he said. "It's an all-weather facility. This has just been wonderful."

The warehouse, which has been in use since January, is the result of two years of planning with the Port of Harlingen, said Sam Sparks, former Rio Grande Valley Sugar Growers president and the man for whom the facility is named.

He said storage possibilities with the warehouse, coupled with that of the Santa Rosa facility of about the same size, has made it easier for the co-op to adhere to shipping deadlines.

"Domino wants to receive our sugar over a 12-month period, but we produce our sugar in a five- or six-month period," he said.

Altogether, the warehouse is expected to save the co-op about $320,000 each year.

"Our intention was to save enough to make the lease payment on the facility and haul (the sugar) down here," Bearden said.

Port of Harlingen Director Butch Palmer said he is happy to welcome the new facility to the port.

"It's nice to have another tenant out here and they're paying us rent for the building," he said. "It's going to help them cut down some of their costs."

Harlingen City Commissioner Larry Galbreath said the new warehouse is a positive addition to the Valley's agricultural industry.

"With modern technology you get more production and better use of what you have," he said. "You just look at the technology going on here and you realize, ‘this is pretty cool.'

"Just look at that," he said, referring to a 60-foot mountain of sugar.

source: brownsvilleherald