Port of Castries berth expansion completes ahead of schedule
Second dedicated reefer berth commissioned; effective reefer plug capacity up 46%. Reduces bottleneck for LCA agri-exporters heading into Q4 peak.
Reefer plug utilization — Port Castries
The Saint Lucia Air and Sea Ports Authority (SLASPA — illustrative reference) has commissioned the second dedicated reefer berth at Port Castries three weeks ahead of schedule, adding 84 plug positions and extending effective reefer capacity by roughly 46%.
The expansion directly relieves the Q3-Q4 bottleneck that constrained CaribHarvest Exports and other Windward agri-consolidators in the 2025 peak, when reefer plug contention forced 11% of outbound containers to a secondary hub.
Combined with the CARICOM e-window rollout, the effective throughput uplift on the LCA-US corridor for perishable exports should exceed 20% by Q1 2027 on a like-for-like basis.