page 22 The Public Record • June 11, 2009
“King of Cocoa” Harvey Weiner Grooms An ‘Air’ To His Throne
“KING OF COCOA” Harvey Weiner and his “Prince” Ari Weiner, seen here at the DDS Pier 84 Offices, talk about adding services to their cocoa distribution center.
by Rory G. McGlasson Harvey Weiner, president of Dependable Distribution Services, is best known in the maritime community as the Delaware Valley’s “King Cocoa”. That’s because DDS brings in the cocoa beans that are shipped to the likes of Hershey Foods, Bloomer Chocolate, Wilbur Chocolate, Mars and Food Process International. If the port was worried about what would happen if the Cocoa King ever left the
building, please don’t, because there is a Prince at DDS. Ari Weiner, 28, is Harvey’s eldest son, and he is in charge of accounting and human Resources at DDS. Under Harvey’s tutelage, Ari is learning the ropes. Ari is helping his father put together a strategic vision that will give added value to DDS in the shape of containerized coffee. But until then, the Weiners will continue to rule over the water with the trade they made their name in: distributing cocoa.
Weiner has aided the port in garnering its reputation as the number-one destination in the USA for imported cocoa. It helps that over half of the USA's cocoa-grinding capacity lie within three hours of Pier 84. Weiner said DDS has handled more ships at the Pier 84, but less tonnage in the last couple of years; ships with a capacity of 10,000 tons may come in with only 3,000 tons. One of the largest vessels to ever dock at Pier 84 dropped in April, bringing with her 18,000 tons of soft and long cocoa beans. Weiner is a strong supporter of the World Cocoa Foundation which aids cocoa farmers and their families worldwide. WCF programs raise farmer incomes, encourage responsible, sustainable cocoa farming and strengthen communities. “It helps us all grow in the global economy in which we now live,” Weiner said. Weiner notes the cocoa industry is changing. It has consolidated, and the middleman
has been taken out of the picture at trading houses in places like New York, so DDS now brings product directly from its origin. That means more trips overseas for Weiner. He says he learns new things on each trip; he then passes on his knowledge! Weiner is a board member of the Maritime Academy. He brings in local students to the cocoa-bean warehouse at Pier 84 where he discusses issues important to ocean transportation of cocoa beans and the cocoa trade in general. DDS sees a bright future in cocoa-bean industry but Harvey, along with his son Ari, is going nuts for coffee at the moment! Without divulging too much information, he said, “There are six to eight roasters in Philadelphia,” Harvey Weiner says. “And once the region gets it Board of Trade certification, we can start looking into adding value services like containerized coffee.”
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Dredged Material Useful
(Cont. from Page 21) land on the New Jersey side of the river – but 500 acres of it are, by an odd twist in the river’s meandering history, legally a part of Delaware. Unless your second car is a dredge, you will find it very hard to visit Killcahook. At different places in the river, dredges will be removing rock, silt, clay, sand and gravel. I-95 in Delaware was built with sand and gravel from the Delaware River, for instance. In other areas, dredged material has been used for wetlands restoration, wildlife preserves and beach-erosion repair. Brenna observes, “Not only is there not negative impact from dredging, it can have a significant positive impact.” The channel must be designed for safety, Callegari says. “Different bottom conditions require different safety margins,” he details. “If you’re working with rock, you want a 3-foot draft for vessels over that rock. Silt is softer and less dangerous to a ship’s hull, so you can get away with 1 foot of draft.”
The Delaware Channel, when built in the 1940s, contained 16 turns. Today’s ships, both deeper and longer, require new channel engineering, chiefly in the turns. Twelve of them will have to be brought up to size by widening them. But those are the only places where width is going to matter, Callegari says. “Those engineers of the ‘40s had tremendous foresight,” he notes with admiration. “They built a roomy two-lane channel that goes from 450 feet in width upriver to 1000 feet in the Bay.” Scheduling is a crucial part of project planning. “You never want to stop a dredge once you start it, until the job is done,” states Callegari. “But most common environmental impacts have to do with seasonal migrations of birds and fishes. So we work very closely with environmental experts to make sure a given dredging contract begins and ends in a window that will not adversely affect wildlife.” So the five-year plan begins.