By Karen E. Thuermer, AJOTWake up and smell the coffee! That’s what folks in New Orleans are saying these days. Not only is the National Coffee Association of USA, Inc. (NCAUSA) holding its Centennial Convention on March 16-19 in New Orleans, last year J.M. Smucker Co. announced that it is moving all of its coffee roasting operations to the Crescent City. It’s already the hub of Smucker’s coffee supply chain. In addition, Smucker’s is expanding its Lacombe, LA, distribution center, which originally opened in 2003. That facility benefits from its close proximity to Interstate 55, which leads to Memphis; Interstate 10, which connects to Houston, as well as Interstate 59. These new commitments to Louisiana involve Smucker’s investing $70 million to consolidate all of its coffee production into its two New Orleans plants. Accordingly, Smucker’s will close its coffee plants in Sherman, Texas, and Kansas City, MO, in 2011 and 2012. It had acquired those plants when Smucker’s purchased Folgers in 2008 from Proctor and Gamble. Tim Smucker, board chairman and co-CEO of J.M. Smucker Co., says the consolidation is part of a restructuring of its coffee and fruit spread supply chain, which is important for long-term growth. The consolidation is expected to save the company $60 million annually and make New Orleans its exclusive entrepot and increase New Orleans’ cachet as a distribution and coffee hub. By 2012, all of Folgers and other associated coffee brands will be roasted in New Orleans. That represents more than $1 billion of coffee sales per year. “We take this announcement as a tremendous vote of confidence in the Port of New Orleans and the local coffee community,” remarks Port President and CEO Gary LaGrange. “We are proud to be an integral link in Folgers’ supply chain, and we will continue to work diligently to keep the coffee brewing.” New Orleans Coffee Port The Port of New Orleans runs neck and neck with the Port of New York/New Jersey for coffee handling with each accounting for roughly 300,000 short tons of imported coffee beans, according to PIERS data. Specifically, the Port of New Orleans reported 294,779 short tons of coffee imports in calendar year 2009, up from 245,016 short tons in 2008, 217,634 short tons in 2007, and 206,042 short tons in 2006. For January-October 2010, the port handled 232,325 short tons of coffee imports with Brazil being, by far, the top exporter. For that time period, New Orleans port officials report Brazil exported 100,560 short tons through their port, compared to the port’s No. 2 exporter Colombia at 22,853 short tons, and No. 3 Nicaragua at 16,076 short tons. The Port of HYPERLINK “http://www.portno.com/rubber.htm” New Orleans is regarded a top coffee handling port largely because it offers 14 warehouses, more than 5.5 million feet of storage space and six roasting facilities within a 20 mile radius. “Much of this is related to Folgers,” says Chris Bonura, port spokesman. Two of the most modern bulk processing operations are located in New Orleans: Dupuy Storage and Forwarding Corp. and Silocaf of New Orleans, Inc. Dupuy’s is North America’s first green coffee bulk processing facility and first certified organic coffee warehouse. It offers 1 million square feet of full service warehouse space, operates as a foreign trade zone and, among other attributes, has New York and London Coffee Exchange licensed warehouses. Silocaf, a division of Italian stevedoring and logistics firm Pacorini Global, is regarded the No. 1 coffee processing plant in the United States and the world’s largest green coffee storage and blending facility. All of Folgers green coffee beans are handled by Silocaf, a facility that is located on property leased from the Port next to the Napoleon Avenue Container Terminal. Silocaf’s operations include screening the coffee beans by size and sorting by color and gravity, a process Silocaf executives say helps achieve higher quality coffee. A specially equipped, in-house labo