A new facility may be coming to the Tenth Avenue Marine Terminal – solely focused on something sweet.
Raw sugar, up to 280,000 metric tons a year, is expected to be imported to the Port of San Diego’s planned storage facilities. And for the first time at the port, electric trucks will transport the sugar.
The port’s Board of Commissioners recently approved the agreements necessary to begin planning the sustainable project with Mexico’s Zucarmex, as long as California Sugar Equipment, LLC, fulfills terms of an option-to-lease agreement within 18 months.
The agency has been working with Zucarmex since 2018 to import sugar, which comes in from Mexico, Central America and Brazil.
The cargo is offloaded directly from vessels to about 1,000 diesel trucks, then sent to Otay Mesa processing facilities the same day.
The proposed storage facility, an approximately 50,000-square-foot warehouse in the southeastern portion of the terminal, would make for a more efficient unloading process, officials said.
According to Zucarmex and California Sugar Equipment, the approximately $6.2 million project is expected to create over 100 jobs between the Otay Mesa and Tenth Avenue facilities.
Since 2019, the port has experienced 10% job growth, supporting over 71,000 jobs in the county, according to economic data, and an estimated one in 30 San Diego County jobs are supported by the port.
The proposed facility also will support the port’s yearly growth in dry bulk and break bulk activities.
Once the agreement is fully satisfied, construction should begin within one year after the lease takes effect.
San Diego is the fourth largest port in California.
In the 2024 fiscal year, the port saw imports of approximately 2.36 million metric tons of cargo, including almost 660,000 metric tons of dry bulk, which, along with sugar, includes sand, soda ash, fertilizer and cement.
Other top imports at the port include vehicles, break bulk and liquid bulk cargo and produce.
The Tenth Avenue terminal is being modernized under a redevelopment plan that started with the removal of two obsolete warehouses and improvements to on-dock rail and utilities, and the addition of new lighting and pavement.
The first phase was completed in 2020, and work continues on Phase 2, with plans for on-terminal rail track replacement and realignment and load capacity improvements.
Port officials say the Zucarmex project aligns with the redevelopment plan.
Ann Moore, the chair of the board, also said the proposed project is a “Port first.”
“Zucarmex would be the first to use only electric trucks in its operations, making our terminal not only more efficient, but also more modern and sustainable,” Moore said in a June news release.
To support the agency’s sustainability goals, the Class 8 zero-emission vehicles will be charged using renewable energy from solar panels installed on the warehouse’s roof. During the unloading process, added technology will control emissions, at minimum officials said, by 95%.
Richard Eastment, a representative of Zucarmex and California Sugar Equipment, called the project a “milestone.”
“We are proud to lead by example as early adopters of clean energy and zero-emission technologies,” Eastment said.
