The cross-party group of MPs also criticises the Government for failing to allow sufficient time for a key public body, the Marine Management Organisation, to comment on the proposals before they are finalised. The MMO starts operation next month.

Launching the report, Committee chairman Louise Ellman said, "Our witnesses, from across the spectrum, told us that the ports policy should be clearly co-ordinated with that for national road and rail networks. Yet the Government seems to be rushing the Ports NPS through with unnecessary haste. The Infrastructure Planning Commission (IPC) has told us that there are no major port applications in the pipeline and the Marine Management Organisation, which will handle many of the smaller proposals, does not come into existence until April 2010."

The IPC, which has been operating since October 2009, will make decisions on major planning proposals, based on a general policy statement from the Government, a National Policy Statement (NPS). The Government published the NPS for Ports - along with six related to energy - in November 2009, and has said it will publish an NPS on national road and rail networks by the end of March 2010.

MPs also criticise the lack of evidence to underpin the policy for port development. The Government admits that its forecasts for growth in port traffic do not take into account the impacts of the recession. The Committee calls for these forecasts to be updated urgently and warns that, unless this work is undertaken, there is a danger that the need for new ports will have to be argued in each development application - one of the main things that an NPS is intended to avoid.

UK ports are mainly privately owned and run. The Government's interim policy on port development, published in 2007, says that the market should decide where and when additional port capacity should be built. The Committee says it recognises that the Government cannot force developers to build ports in locations they think will be uneconomic, nor force ships to use them, but it wants to see a clear link between the Government's policy to reduce regional economic disparities and the planning guidance on ports development. There also needs to be better linkage with regional spatial and economic plans.

Louise Ellman added: "The Government says the free-market should decide where ports are located. We believe that the Ports NPS should be linked much more strongly to regional development plans. It should also express a clear preference for port development where national needs can be met while producing greatest regional social and economic benefits. There should also be a clear preference for port development in locations where significant environmental benefits can be achieved - particularly through reduced road transport.

The Committee also raises concerns about the short time available for consultation and Parliamentary scrutiny of the document.

With slightly more than a month left in the Southern Hemisphere's export season for summer fruit, the perishable products were in transit to Chile's ports or on the docks awaiting loading when the earthquake struck Feb. 27.

"There's a lot of product ready to go, but it can't get to market," said Chris Connell, president of Commodity Forwarders in Los Angeles, as shipments were backing up a week after the earthquake struck.

The quake killed an estimated 500 people, and the government had to send in troops to quell looting. The economy, one of the most stable in Latin America, started moving again relatively rapidly, but prices for key Chilean exports, including perishables, salmon and copper, were rising last week because of potential supply disruptions.

American consumers who value the reasonably priced fresh fruit products from Chile at this time of year have less to choose from and must pay higher prices for the fruit making its way to markets.

Having dealt with serious earthquakes dating back to its settlement by the Spanish in the 1500s, Chile in relatively short order was able to implement its disaster-recovery program to reopen ports, airports, roadways and bridges.

Pacific ports including Valparaiso and San Antonio were operating at about 90 percent of capacity a week after the quake, according to the Chilean Exporters Association. Airlines were flying into and out of Santiago with air freight as well as passengers, after the capital's international airport suffered damage in the quake.

The transportation supply chain, however, also includes roads, bridges, rail networks and electrical power connecting inland production and packing facilities with ports and airports. Government agencies involved in the export process, including customs and agricultural inspectors, also were affected by the quake, and "the Chilean government is stretched," Connell said.

Packing plants handling perishables were idled for up to a week in some locations. The earthquake struck in south central Chile, where about 70 percent of the country's wine production takes place. Some wineries were hit hard, with cracked storage tanks and barrels spilling their contents into the streets.

Disruption of the supply chain was especially damaging to highly perishable fruits such as blueberries, said Jerry Williams, sales representative at California Grower Direct Marketing in Stockton, Calif. Hardier stone fruits such as peaches and nectarines fared better, he said.

The impact on other business echoed worldwide. Copper prices rose last week on world markets amid fears that supplies from Chile - the country supplies one-third of the world's copper - would be disrupted. Most Chilean copper mines are in the north of the country and did not suffer much quake damage.

The country's salmon industry was disrupted but reported to be back operating relatively smoothly a week later.

One of the key milestones in the recovery program was restoring electrical power, said Nancy Tucker, vice president of global development at the Produce Marketing Association in Newark, Del. The supply chain began to recover when operations were restored at packing plants and when refrigerated warehouses were able to store product.

With a month left in the produce export season, however, time is of the essence. A bilateral federal marketing agreement sets April 10 as the deadline for Chile's fruit exports so they do not to overlap with crops grown in the United States. Tucker said efforts are under way to extend the deadline this year.

Chile's main ports reopened about the same time as the airport in Santiago. However, exporters of perishables immediately diverted to air freight the produce that would have normally gone by sea. Delays hit the airport, and U.S. importers had to build an extra day or two into their supply chains, Connell said.

The ports of Valparaiso and San Antonio were affected by power outages and flooding in container yards, but they were operating at 90 percent of capacity about a week after the earthquake. Hamburg Sud, which had diverted some vessels, began to work ships back into their fixed-day rotations, the carrier reported.

The northern port of Coquimbo was not damaged in the earthquake and was immediately able to take cargo diverted from other ports. The damaged Port of Lirquen was unable to accommodate fruit shipments, but because volumes were small, they were easily accommodated at other ports, the exporters association said.

Soon after the quake, engineers were testing bridges and repair crews were rebuilding damaged roadways, including Route 5, the main north-south highway.

Chile, like other Pacific Rim countries, has survived and rebuilt its infrastructure after previous earthquakes. "They'll get through it," Connell said.