News & Updates

President’s Message: June 2022

June 21, 2022

Just weeks after we celebrated World Trade Month in Florida, a delegation from the Florida Ports Council is on a Trade Mission to Mexico this week. We’re proud to partner with the World Trade Center Miami and Enterprise Florida to focus on increasing trade between Mexico and Florida.

As part of the multi-day trade mission, Port Panama City Port Director Alex King signed a Memorandum of Understanding on behalf of the Florida Ports Council with the Government of Mexico and the Interoceanic Corridor.

The MOU will allow working groups to share best practices and take advantage of strategic strengths to better compete in the world market for the movement of goods. Chief among those opportunities is importing and exporting – key functions of our supply chain.

During the trade mission, Port Everglades Senior Manager of Business Development Robert Barcelo was able to focus on the strategic advantages during a meeting with the Mexican National Association of Importers and Exporters. We know the benefits of cargo calling on Florida seaports, and this is a great opportunity to grow and strengthen those relationships with Mexico.

Florida’s efforts to secure more cargo from across the world continues to pay off. Port Tampa Bay is seeing growth through a new direct Asia service, in addition to new service connections with Mexico and Central America. MSC has launched its new Zephyr service from northern China and South Korea to the U.S. Gulf Coast and it will include a direct call to Port Everglades. And at JAXPORT, the first vessel in global ocean carrier Sea Lead Shipping Pte Ltd’s new Asia East Coast container service made its inaugural call to the port earlier this month.

The state of Florida seaports is strong, and our efforts to continuing growing our footprint has never been stronger.