Railex makes the cross-country trip four times a week from west to east, and back.

Railex will load the fruit onto Union Pacific trains - dubbed the Fruit Express - near Albany for the five-day journey west. On the sixth morning, the fruit will be available to supermarkets, restaurants, and wholesalers from San Diego north to Portland and Seattle, said Railex's vice president of corporate accounts, Bill Welker.

Railex makes the cross-country trip four times a week from west to east, and back. The trains depart Rotterdam, N.Y., on Tuesday and Thursday nights, with 55 rail cars, to Delano, Calif., and Pasco, Wash. "We take wine, orange juice, anything that's refrigerated and time sensitive," Welker said.

Why does so much fruit come here?

"Philadelphia is incredibly well-suited for the fresh fruit industry in terms of transportation, cold storage facilities, and U.S. Department of Agriculture facilities," Solomon said.

The region has extensive on-dock refrigerated warehouses and a network of inland cold-storage facilities accessible to shippers "that is unparalleled in the United States," said Leo Holt, whose family owns Gloucester Terminals and runs Packer Avenue Marine Terminal in South Philadelphia.

In Vineland, Hammonton and Glassboro, which cater to tomato, peach and blueberry growers, "there is lots of management and skilled labor who know how to handle fruit," Holt said. In nearby Kennett Square, there is temperature-controlled storage traditionally geared to the mushroom industry.

South African fruit exports, expected to be between $70 million to $80 million in 2010, will benefit the entire region because many who work on the piers in Gloucester live in South Philadelphia. Others live in South Jersey. "Likewise, the guys who work the container ships over at Packer Avenue live in South Jersey or Wilmington. It's a community," Holt said.