KINGSBURY, Ind. — A proposal to develop a terminal for CSX that would bring fresh produce north from Florida and haul Midwest farm products south could pump new life into the Kingsbury Industrial Plant in LaPorte County.

Chris McGrath, a logistics negotiator for Champion Realty Advisors LLC of Willowbrook, Ill., said he’s optimistic a deal could be reached – possibly this spring.

“There’s not a lot I can say right now because we’re at a critical point,” said McGrath, who noted negotiations are taking place among CSX, LaPorte County officials and the owners of Kingsbury Industrial Park, which is about seven miles south of the city of La Porte.

Dubbed the Green Express, the proposal by CSX would operate from Port Manatee, Fla., on the Gulf Coast and run northwest to Kingsbury and then east to Camden, N.J., before returning to Florida. From Port Manatee, the network also would use ships to bring fresh produce in from Central and South America as well as the Caribbean.

Plans at Kingsbury call for a 200-acre rail and truck transportation hub called an intermodal. The Green Express would provide refrigerated unit trains to handle perishable products.

LaPorte County officials have signed off on the project. The county’s interest is in creating jobs and boosting economic development. The major project in Kingsbury aside from acquiring land is construction of a cold storage warehouse for fruits, vegetables and other food.

One recent hurdle that was cleared was an agreement with the U.S. Army to allow a 2.5-mile rail easement across its Army Reserve property near the industrial park, in exchange for extending a one-mile sewer line to the reserve center. The easement provides CSX the ability to connect with other rail lines serving Chicago.

Also involved in the negotiations are the Indiana Economic Development Committee and the Indiana Department of Agriculture.

Logansport dairy farmer Dave Forgey said there is huge potential – and some pitfalls – for Indiana farmers.

“At first glance, the impact appears negative unless we turn it into a positive,” said Forgey. “This will bring produce and crops we can’t grow here into our market, but it also has the possibility of bringing South American grain directly to the Midwest. That’s the negative.

“But what are the positives? South America is trying to develop a dairy industry, but the infrastructure to do that just isn’t there,” he said. “They don’t want to send all those railcars back to Florida empty, so there is the potential of filling them for backhauls with our products.”

Forgey, 68, has been a dairy farmer all his life, and he said other dairy producers across Indiana, Michigan and the Midwest could gain, with the ability to ship dairy products such as powdered milk and cheese to South America.

“We need to be ready to export things. I see tremendous opportunity in this for farmers,” said Forgey.

“I’m really passionate about this, and let me tell you why. In early 2008, New Zealand was the world’s largest dairy exporter because its dairy products were priced under ours. Now their prices are above ours and New Zealand is buying U.S. products and shipping them directly to China. They export 90 to 95 percent of their products.”

Forgey said that amount is equivalent to the California dairy output annually, and there is no reason the United States couldn’t be doing that on its own and keeping the money here.

“It’s certainly not huge compared to our dairy industry, but it’s big. The difference is that 85 percent of our dairy is consumed in the U.S.,” said Forgey. “The other 15 percent is used as leverage by the government to control prices, which pushes down prices to farmers. The way to improve the status of the U.S. dairy farmer is to export dairy products.”

LuAnn Troxel, president of the Indiana Professional Dairy Producers (IPDP), is excited about the possibilities the Green Express holds, but said it’s too early to know what kind of an impact it will have on the region’s agriculture.

Troxel and her husband operate a 130-head dairy farm and veterinary business near Hanna in southern LaPorte County. She said there are 18 Grade A dairies in LaPorte County that could benefit from the Kingsbury project, adding the impact could extend well beyond LaPorte County and even into Michigan.

“The IPDP is definitely interested in the project,” said Troxel. “Beyond that, though, it’s way too early to say anything definitive. With the quality of milk produced in the area, we know it would be a good product to send south, but we don’t know how that would work yet.”

The IPDP is putting together a feasibility study on the proposed Green Express project, said Troxel. “We want to be proactive on something like this. We see this as having tremendous potential for dairy farmers,” she explained.