Tuesday, April 9, 2013

Port of Oakland Joins China Trade Mission


Port of Oakland Acting Executive Director Deborah Ale Flint is the sole seaport executive involved in a California state trade mission to China this week led by California Gov. Jerry Brown.

Ale Flint is expected to join the California-China trade mission in Beijing April 10 and 11 for targeted meetings focused on development of direct air service between China and Oakland, which the port says could yield as much as $150 million annually for the region.

From April 6 to 9, before joining Gov. Brown’s group, Ale Flint traveled to Singapore and Hong Kong to meet with key Oakland maritime trading partners. She’s also scheduled to participate in the opening of the new state trade office in Shanghai on April 12, as well as in a forum focused on agricultural exports to China.

China-Oakland maritime trade totaled $14.5 billion in 2012, more than three times the port’s second-largest trading partner.

“The Port of Oakland is proud to engage in the California trade mission to China and combine it with face-to-face business development discussions involving our maritime and aviation businesses,” Ale Flint said in a statement. “This is an important time for the port to meet with overseas maritime business partners to promote our competitiveness as a US maritime gateway of choice.”

Although the Port of Oakland is the only seaport supporting the trade mission, the delegation also includes many of the port’s business partners, tenants and organizations whose members move cargo through the port, including the Almond Board of California, which represents almond growers that predominantly ship out of the Oakland seaport; and the Wine Institute, whose exporting members also primarily ship through Oakland.