Port Houston hosted more than 30 industry representatives for a Perishables Roundtable at the port’s Executive Building Nov. 15.

Participants included importers, exporters, buyers, retailers, brokers, cold storage warehouses, ocean carriers, truckers and the public agencies involved in the trade.

Port Houston Senior Director of Trade Development, John Moseley, provided welcome remarks to the attendees. The professionals discussed a new electronic-cold pasteurization process with a presentation provided by Lindsay Caswell, marketing manager at ScanTech Sciences, Inc.

The Puerta Verde Market development, a new perishables market concept in Houston for consumer-direct distribution and building upon the regional produce network, was another topic of interest.

Alejandro Gammon, Officer in Charge with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, provided an update on pest identification reports and answered questions regarding perishables import issues. Some of the top refrigerated cargo commodities Port Houston handles include bananas, pineapples and a variety of citrus products.

The goal of the event is to improve communication between all stakeholders of Port Houston's perishable community.