After spending 13 years as a seafarer, the last two as a captain, Alok Praharaj was ready to come ashore and raise a family. Life at sea was challenging, especially before cellular technology made communication much easier.
Now, 40 years later, Praharaj no longer spends months at sea. But as the owner of American Marine & Cargo, Inc. (AMC), the ease of modern communication has its pros and cons. He sleeps with his phone, and it can ring at any hour of the night.
“It’s a 24/7 job,” said Praharaj, who serves as AMC’s Principal Surveyor. “Our survey timings are very bad: holidays, weekends, snow, cold, heat. It doesn’t matter. Our phone is on; people call and we go. A lot of times it’s not per a schedule.”
At the mention of Perdue Farms, many people might think of the late CEO Frank Perdue, who made his birds famous through a wildly successful advertising campaign in the 1970s: “It takes a tough man to make a tender chicken.”
The Salisbury, Maryland-based company is nationally known for producing oven-stuffing poultry. But Perdue didn’t invest $30 million in 2018 to build a bunch of coops at the Port of Baltimore. It takes a lot of feed to grow chickens (and other livestock), which led to the 150,000-square-foot grain facility at Tradepoint Atlantic for Perdue AgriBusiness.
“We’re an agricultural buyer and processor, supporting farmers through the sourcing and processing of grains and oilseeds, and providing domestic farmers with access to international markets,” said Jeremy Hamilton, Director of Operations for Animal Nutrition and Specialty Crops at Perdue AgriBusiness. “That work spans grains, oilseeds, organic feed and nutritional ingredients, with products moving both domestically and internationally.”
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