And Mr Jaeger's admiration has firm grounding: last year, Valparaiso moved 9.7m tonnes of cargo and some 845,000 teu. The projection this year is for growth to be around 10% for each category, statistics from the port show. They project 925,000 teu and some 10.7m tonnes of cargo, with very Chilean principal exports: fresh fruit, wine, food product and copper along with some other metals. 

Much of that growth is driven by Asian and especially the China trade, something that Valaparaiso is keen to build upon despite the delay in signing a sister port agreement with the Chinese port of Guangzhuo.

The deal between the two, which focuses on sharing information and occasionally personnel was due to have been signed in June but Beijing's all hands to the pumps order in the wake of the Sichuan earthquake and ahead of the Olympics has seen it delayed till September. It will be Valparaiso's second sister agreement with a Chinese port as one has already been signed with Shanghai.
 
"Generally with us, China and Asia are an important share of cargo. For us, it is important to know further how we can be more competitive for those cargoes and their shipping," says Mr Jaeger in conversation with Port Strategy. "In the medium term we envisage the logistic channels will change and we will have to deal with connections between the ports."

Nor is this the only opportunity. Like so many other cities, Valparaiso has to fund its development plans and the call for investment is both local and international. A sister port agreement offers an entree and while Mr Jaeger refuses to talk details the idea is clearly there. "We are also interested to promote in China and Asia in general this investment opportunity in our port," he says, adding "we expect an investment of about $250m."
 
What is available in the short term is the development of terminal two, say officials, which starts in August this year with several months given over to select the concessionaire. Building starts next year and the new facility will come on line in 2012. Not that all this development is going to be without difficulty, as Mr Jaeger well knows and, it must be said, is prepared for.

Asked what EPV's main challenges are he says: "The first one is to build the new terminal as quickly as we can." This invites the issue of possible objections. "We don't have resistance but we have to resolve the expectations of stevedores to cover, to resolve the situation of those more (vulnerable and older workers). Expansion might require more people. We are having conversations with them and we will arrive to an agreement promptly."

More immediately, EPV also set up ZEAL, or to give it its full title the Logistical Support Extension Zone. This is a facility for the reception, inspection, control and coordination of cargo vehicles travelling to and from Valparaiso Port berths, but done 11 kilometres from the waterside. It can hold 540 trucks and includes access and exit controls for cargo vehicles as well as 34 standard platforms for customs and sanitary checks.

In short, all the processing associated with imports and exports has been relocated off the waterfront. Truck drivers clear all their goods and then drive on to the actual port in a managed fashion. 

"ZEAL from our point of view is a pioneer process," says Mr Jaeger. "We can control and organise all the logistics for the port outside so we can use 100% of the port area only for cargo storage."

It is being built up incrementally as Mr Jaegar admits. "We are carrying out a progressive process. We started with fruit and vegetables last January. In August we will continue with the balance of the flows and also do imports," he says.