Author Archive
Clamshells, that clear plastic packaging you find in your local supermarket’s produce department has become a mainstay after being introduced a couple of decades ago.
Now, manufacturers of clamshells for strawberries and other fresh produce commodities have been tweaking the dimensions to satisfy both consumer desires and industry concerns.
The one-pounder is the clamshell is most popular, but other sizes, including the two-pounder and four-pounder, are gaining favor. Produce truckers may even notice some new packaging configurations. For example, F-D-S Manufacturing Co. in Pomona, CA, has introduced a two-pound clamshell with three different sizes, each of which allows for an eight-down pallet stacking configuration.
The three sizes of the clamshell and the ability to be packed in a tray that goes eight down on a pallet are equally important. While the outer dimensions of the clamshell remain the same, the inside needs to change a bit to fit different sizes of strawberries. As the season progresses, the average size of a berry changes and the inside dimensions of the clamshell must change to hit the weight advertised. Larger berries tend to be less dense so the clamshell has to be bigger to still get to the two-pound weight. Smaller fruit utilizes the inside space better and less mass is needed to reach two pounds of fruit. The same principle holds true when dealing with one or four-pound clamshells.
The eight down trays allow for better utilization of the cube of a refrigerated big rig trailer. In fact, with an eight down pallet, 30-35 percent more trays can be put in a truck. That is a huge freight advantage. The same freight advantage applies when shipping the empty clamshells to the grower. While this provide a freight advantage for the shipper, is the added weight enough to significantly cut into the what is being paid to the truck?
The four-pound clamshells also fit well in an eight down pallet configuration. Creating a one-pounder that offers that same freight advantage has been difficult.
The clamshell manufacturing industry has evolved over the years, and now virtually all the pellets being used to start the produce industry clamshells process come from recycled soda bottles. Depending upon the quality of the shipment, a small percentage of virgin material may have to be added to reach the quality level needed in the resulting clamshell. But overall, well over 90 percent of the material ultimately used comes from recycled product. And the clamshells themselves are recyclable.
Clamshells took over from plastic baskets in the strawberry industry more than two decades ago and now they account for at least 90 percent of strawberry containers.
n the decades long discussion to move Chicago’s wholesale produce businesses from the South Water Street Market to the current Chicago International Produce Market, one design compromise reached, was to keep the feel of the modern market, with open loading docks.
Chicago produce wholesalers “fought” for years over building a new market. The move finally came in 2002. Ironically, two individuals that were instrumental in making it happen – didn’t even move to the new market. Instead, Peter Testa of Testa Produce Inc., as well as Gene Ruffolo of C. Ruffolo & Sons moved elsewhere in Chicago. Ruffolo, who is located just across the Chicago River from the new Chicago Market is leasing space from one of the nation’s largest produce wholesale distributors, Anthony Marano Co. Marano built his gigantic facility before the new market was even built as he decided not wait on others to make up their minds what to do.
While some wholesalers wanted to keep an old time produce market feel, eventually concerns over food safety prevailed as cold chain considerations grew in the industry. This eventually led to the decision to enclose the front docks.
When the market opened a dozen years ago, the market’s back side was cold chain controlled for receiving produce. Customers loading on the front dock had a high overhang, but it wasn’t enclosed.
This spring the Chicago International Market is completing the addition of rolling doors — similar to large garage doors — to help protect the display dock.
The doors are not insulated to control the cold chain, but they will block blowing blizzards and the cold wind. The doors may have some influence in dock temperatures, but they will certainly cut the wind, wind chill and snow on the dock.
The winter two years ago was the final straw for many in making the decision to invest in the doors.
There are no heaters behind the new doors, but when it is minus 20 degrees, the snow at least will not be blowing across the dock.
Mexican produce crossing the border into the Lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas – grossing about $3000 to Chicago.
A key to success is the advancement and modernization of equipment, whether talking long haul trucking or in this case, the machines that ready pallets with trays of strawberries, protected by the Tectrol CO2 process.
Tectrol is a patented process held by TransFresh Corporation in Salinas, CA.
TransFresh has what it calls a modified squeeze which effectively allows the company to increase the productivity of its conveyor system at packing facilities. Now research is being conducted to use the squeeze system in the field, according to Rich Macleod, vice president, pallet division, for TransFresh.
“An older model can produce 45 to 55 pallets per hour across that machine,” Macleod says. “With the double down version, we’ve significantly modified the squeeze portion. We’ve also added mechanisms that square the pallet. We’ve changed the conveyor roll on so they are able to produce 55 to 65 pallets per hour.”
Continuing, Macleod notes there also are programs allowing machine operators to stop and back up the pallets on the system when trouble shooting is needed. This allows the problem to be quickly addressed.
In general, it (the system) is faster. So all of this is good for the produce haulers. The boxes on the pallets are more squared than ever and this reduces chances of shifting (of the load) even more. It also protects the strawberries, providing a better seal. Perhaps most important is it helps to speed loading onto the truck, reducing the wait times at the dock by the drivers,” Macleod says.
It’s looking like another banner year for California grape shipments as the desert winds down and the San Joaquin Valley cranks up.
With the end of May, Coachella volume appeared down 20% from 2014. Early starts can make for early finishes. Some Coachella shippers are just finishing their desert grape season, about a week early. However, a few shipments will occur in the last week of June….Mexican grape shipments face a similar situation. Some loadings will end the around June 20th, when July 4th is typical.
While Coachella and Mexico are finishing up early, shipping gaps are not seen because the San Joaquin Valley grape shipments are ahead of schedule. Initial light harvests are expected by June 20-22. Shipments should be moving into good volume by the second week of July.
Preliminary estimates for California grape shipments out of the San Joaquin Valley are pegged at 113.3 million 19-pound boxes for 2015. This is up from 110.9 million last year. The state’s record, set in 2013, was 116.3 million. Loadings of California grapes should be available through November.
California Tomato Shipments
California shipped its first load of mature green tomatoes on June 2. Several more loads were shipped during the week of June 8th, putting the crop about a week ahead of schedule. If all goes as expected, California will have mature greens through about mid-November. The mature green tomato is popular with foodservice companies and also is used by repackers across the country. Acreage is down about 10 percent this year due to the California drought.
While the California season gets under way, there are also tomatoes from several other locations including crossings from Mexico into California, Arizona and Texas.
San Joaquin Valley tomatoes, stone fruit and vegetables – grossing about $5000 to Chicago; $7400 to New York City.
New Jersey blueberry shipments are underway, plus the Garden State’s peach season is coming soon. Additionally, in Idaho, fruit shipments take a big hit for this season.
New Jersey weather warmed up in mid May and helped bring on blueberries. New Jersey blueberry shipments get underway any day now with the Duke variety. Blues should be in good volume heading in the Fourth of July holiday. Shipments should continue through late July.
New Jersey Peach Shipments
It will be the middle of July before New Jersey peach shipments hit good volumes. Meanwhile peak loadings will arrive later in July and continue through the end of September.
Idaho Fruit Shipments
An Idaho freeze last November in Treasure Valley with temperatures plunging below zero for four straight days resulted in major damage to some fruit trees that had not had a chance to go into dormancy. Many trees have long cracks that occurred when sap and water had not had a chance to move down to the root system. This caused the wood to split open.
In general, apples appear to have weathered the freeze better than other fruit such as prune trees and peach trees. Some fruit trees probably lost two years of their production capability as a result of the November cold. A record warm February and near-record warm March that caused trees to bloom much earlier than normal was followed by an April 3 freeze that damaged blooms.
Idaho potatoes – grossing about $4900 to Philadelphia.
Nathel & Nathel Inc. has expanded operations on the Hunts Point Terminal Market located in the South Bronx of New York City.
The New York-based wholesaler has added refrigeration capacity, reconfigured its fruit and vegetable divisions and improved its docks for truck loading and unloading. Following the closure of Krisp-Pak Sales Corp. in 2012, Nathel & Nathel took over its units and was working on closing on the purchase of units from the defunct Korean Farm, which went out of business in 2014.
Nathel & Nathel now distributes produce from to 23 units.
The distributor also upgraded the warehouse to Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point standards.
Better refrigeration control in different zones will result from the improvements, according to company vice president Sheldon Nathel said. It also should result in better temperature control for fruits and vegetables as well as better organize the operation, making it more efficient.
Nathel & Nathel sells a full line of fruits and vegetables, including tropicals and specialties, to customers throughout the Tri-State region.
The Hunts Point Terminal Market occupies 329 acres and supports 115 private wholesalers that employ over 8,000 people.
Hunts Point wholesalers are paying a freight rate of about $5000 from the Lower Rio Grand Valley of Texas for fruits and vegetables, and about $4800 for Idaho potatoes.
Ohio has more than the Bengals, Browns and Buckeyes. This time of year it becomes an important player in shipping vegetables.
Ohio Vegetable Shipments
The state got underway with radishes mid-May, and dill, cilantro and turnip and mustard greens by the end of the month. Following shortly after that were beets, lettuces, parsley, sweet corn, green onions and celery.
Ohio radish shipments continue from mid-May to mid-November, with other commodities starting in June and winding down in October.
Then you have sweet corn, celery and peppers, which should get underway in mid- to late July and last until the first frost.
Ohio experienced its hottest May since 1988 — which was a drought year. Some daytime highs were in the 90s, although the 80s were more typical. The heat helped bring the vegetable crops on earlier and grow faster.
Here are a few of the major shippers of Ohio vegetables:
Bettinger Farms Inc., Swanton, OH
Wiers Farm Inc. and Dutch Maid Produce, Willard, OH.
Holthouse Farms, Willard, OH.
Buurma Farms, Willard, OH
The harvest of California navel oranges is winding down as July approaches and the season’s production could be close to 81 million cartons, although late season citrus is requiring more grading as marketable product keeps falling. At the same, Valencia orange shipments are replacing navels.
For much of the season, utilization rates — the percentage of fruit that could be sold as fresh — remained in the low 80s, but now it has dipped into the 70s as the crop has been picked over. Subpar oranges are diverted to juice.
Meanwhile, harvest is under way for a diminished Valencia orange crop. Growers this season are expected to ship a 20-million-carton crop, down from 22 million cartons last year and a little more than half the 39 million cartons produced in 2001-02.
Only about 25 to 30 percent into that crop has been harvest, but the Valencias are coming out fewer than expected.
The harvest hits as a fourth year of the California drought and its related federal surface water shutoffs have resulted in many growers taking trees out of production. It is estimated as many as 50,000 acres of orange and other citrus trees would be bulldozed.
The orchard removals could take a particular toll on Valencia trees, which were already being replaced with navels and other more lucrative citrus varieties before the drought began. Valencia acreage has seen a precipitous decline in recent years; there are about 34,000 bearing acres this year, down from 65,000 in 2001-02.
San Joaquin Valley produce rates for citrus, veggies and fruit have been fluctuating by nearly a $1000 in a given week to New York City. On average, rates appear to be around $7700 to the Big Apple.
Holt Logistics Corp., of Gloucester City, NJ has landed separate business agreementsthat has attacted two additional weekly shipments from South America and Central America to Philadelphia’s Packer Avenue Marine Terminal.
The “South American Express” service started June 3rd, operated by SeaLand, the Denmark-based Maersk Group’s intra-Americas regional ocean carrier, plans to begin calling on the terminal.
The service previously terminated in Norfolk, Va., and the change expands SeaLand’s direct connections from Central America into the northeast and provides shippers with better access to U.S. consumers and a user-friendly docking environment for refrigerated peribshable goods, including tropical fruits and other commodities, according to a news release.
Additionally, a joint vessel sharing agreement between SeaLand and American President Lines is designed to create a new “North American Express” service that should attract an additional ship to the terminal each week.
The “North Atlantic Express” service is pending regulatory approval but is scheduled to commence in late June.
The service rotation plans to cycle between the Manzanillo International Terminal in Panama, Cartagena, Columbia, south Florida, Savannah, Ga., Philadelphia and New York.
It boosts SeaLand’s network and offers additional direct connections and service between the West Coast of South America, Central America, the Caribbean and the U.S. East Coast. Business at the Port of Philadelphia continues to grow, and the addition of two weekly service calls from SeaLand/APL will increase efficiency, shorten overall transit times and provide greater opportunities to expand business in both perishable and non-perishable commerce between North and South America.
In 2014 TransFresh Corporation introduced the Tectrol Storage Solution utilizing BreatheWay Technology by California produce company Apio to provide more reliable storage for fresh blueberries. While the produce trucker hauling these berries may never see the process, that driver should benefit from it.
Rich Macleod, TransFresh vice president, pallet division, based in Salinas, CA, says, “There’s a reason we call it a storage solution….blueberry growers store their blueberries (in a controlled atmosphere bag) prior to shipping. The storage bag is removed before being shipped.”
He adds the bag is dynamically different from modified atmosphere for which TransFresh has built a name with strawberries.
Macleod points out blueberries after harvest are sometimes stored as long as four to six weeks as a way of balancing the market.
“To the driver that means that load will be available on a scheduled basis,” Macleod relates. “For example, he will know he needs to be in the Northwest every Tuesday to pick up six pallets of blueberries. It won’t be this frantic thing like picking up and delivering strawberries or cherries.”
Additionally, Macleod sees the Storage Solution as reducing the chances of quality problems at destination, which could lead to claims or deductions from the freight rate.
“When the market is orderly, that’s good for everybody,” he says.
Looking to the future, Macleod notes they are starting to solve the blueberry storage solutions for international transportation. If the shipper is an exporter, when those berries are loaded into a 40-f00t sea van, the product is placed in a controlled atmosphere. He also sees the day when this could be applicable for blueberries and other items being imported to by US companies from countries such as Chile and Peru.
“I don’t see this replacing containers,, but it could certainly impact the number of containers used. I see them being used side by side,” he says.
In the controlled atmosphere systems there is a device that records the atmosphere for the entire container. However, Macleod sees this being cost prohibitive to something like that in each pallet. However, there is research being conducted in this area.
Clamshells, that clear plastic packaging you find in your local supermarket’s produce department has become a mainstay after being introduced a couple of decades ago.
Now, manufacturers of clamshells for strawberries and other fresh produce commodities have been tweaking the dimensions to satisfy both consumer desires and industry concerns.
The one-pounder is the clamshell is most popular, but other sizes, including the two-pounder and four-pounder, are gaining favor. Produce truckers may even notice some new packaging configurations. For example, F-D-S Manufacturing Co. in Pomona, CA, has introduced a two-pound clamshell with three different sizes, each of which allows for an eight-down pallet stacking configuration.
The three sizes of the clamshell and the ability to be packed in a tray that goes eight down on a pallet are equally important. While the outer dimensions of the clamshell remain the same, the inside needs to change a bit to fit different sizes of strawberries. As the season progresses, the average size of a berry changes and the inside dimensions of the clamshell must change to hit the weight advertised. Larger berries tend to be less dense so the clamshell has to be bigger to still get to the two-pound weight. Smaller fruit utilizes the inside space better and less mass is needed to reach two pounds of fruit. The same principle holds true when dealing with one or four-pound clamshells.
The eight down trays allow for better utilization of the cube of a refrigerated big rig trailer. In fact, with an eight down pallet, 30-35 percent more trays can be put in a truck. That is a huge freight advantage. The same freight advantage applies when shipping the empty clamshells to the grower. While this provide a freight advantage for the shipper, is the added weight enough to significantly cut into the what is being paid to the truck?
The four-pound clamshells also fit well in an eight down pallet configuration. Creating a one-pounder that offers that same freight advantage has been difficult.
The clamshell manufacturing industry has evolved over the years, and now virtually all the pellets being used to start the produce industry clamshells process come from recycled soda bottles. Depending upon the quality of the shipment, a small percentage of virgin material may have to be added to reach the quality level needed in the resulting clamshell. But overall, well over 90 percent of the material ultimately used comes from recycled product. And the clamshells themselves are recyclable.
Clamshells took over from plastic baskets in the strawberry industry more than two decades ago and now they account for at least 90 percent of strawberry containers.
n the decades long discussion to move Chicago’s wholesale produce businesses from the South Water Street Market to the current Chicago International Produce Market, one design compromise reached, was to keep the feel of the modern market, with open loading docks.
Chicago produce wholesalers “fought” for years over building a new market. The move finally came in 2002. Ironically, two individuals that were instrumental in making it happen – didn’t even move to the new market. Instead, Peter Testa of Testa Produce Inc., as well as Gene Ruffolo of C. Ruffolo & Sons moved elsewhere in Chicago. Ruffolo, who is located just across the Chicago River from the new Chicago Market is leasing space from one of the nation’s largest produce wholesale distributors, Anthony Marano Co. Marano built his gigantic facility before the new market was even built as he decided not wait on others to make up their minds what to do.
While some wholesalers wanted to keep an old time produce market feel, eventually concerns over food safety prevailed as cold chain considerations grew in the industry. This eventually led to the decision to enclose the front docks.
When the market opened a dozen years ago, the market’s back side was cold chain controlled for receiving produce. Customers loading on the front dock had a high overhang, but it wasn’t enclosed.
This spring the Chicago International Market is completing the addition of rolling doors — similar to large garage doors — to help protect the display dock.
The doors are not insulated to control the cold chain, but they will block blowing blizzards and the cold wind. The doors may have some influence in dock temperatures, but they will certainly cut the wind, wind chill and snow on the dock.
The winter two years ago was the final straw for many in making the decision to invest in the doors.
There are no heaters behind the new doors, but when it is minus 20 degrees, the snow at least will not be blowing across the dock.
Mexican produce crossing the border into the Lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas – grossing about $3000 to Chicago.
A key to success is the advancement and modernization of equipment, whether talking long haul trucking or in this case, the machines that ready pallets with trays of strawberries, protected by the Tectrol CO2 process.
Tectrol is a patented process held by TransFresh Corporation in Salinas, CA.
TransFresh has what it calls a modified squeeze which effectively allows the company to increase the productivity of its conveyor system at packing facilities. Now research is being conducted to use the squeeze system in the field, according to Rich Macleod, vice president, pallet division, for TransFresh.
“An older model can produce 45 to 55 pallets per hour across that machine,” Macleod says. “With the double down version, we’ve significantly modified the squeeze portion. We’ve also added mechanisms that square the pallet. We’ve changed the conveyor roll on so they are able to produce 55 to 65 pallets per hour.”
Continuing, Macleod notes there also are programs allowing machine operators to stop and back up the pallets on the system when trouble shooting is needed. This allows the problem to be quickly addressed.
In general, it (the system) is faster. So all of this is good for the produce haulers. The boxes on the pallets are more squared than ever and this reduces chances of shifting (of the load) even more. It also protects the strawberries, providing a better seal. Perhaps most important is it helps to speed loading onto the truck, reducing the wait times at the dock by the drivers,” Macleod says.
It’s looking like another banner year for California grape shipments as the desert winds down and the San Joaquin Valley cranks up.
With the end of May, Coachella volume appeared down 20% from 2014. Early starts can make for early finishes. Some Coachella shippers are just finishing their desert grape season, about a week early. However, a few shipments will occur in the last week of June….Mexican grape shipments face a similar situation. Some loadings will end the around June 20th, when July 4th is typical.
While Coachella and Mexico are finishing up early, shipping gaps are not seen because the San Joaquin Valley grape shipments are ahead of schedule. Initial light harvests are expected by June 20-22. Shipments should be moving into good volume by the second week of July.
Preliminary estimates for California grape shipments out of the San Joaquin Valley are pegged at 113.3 million 19-pound boxes for 2015. This is up from 110.9 million last year. The state’s record, set in 2013, was 116.3 million. Loadings of California grapes should be available through November.
California Tomato Shipments
California shipped its first load of mature green tomatoes on June 2. Several more loads were shipped during the week of June 8th, putting the crop about a week ahead of schedule. If all goes as expected, California will have mature greens through about mid-November. The mature green tomato is popular with foodservice companies and also is used by repackers across the country. Acreage is down about 10 percent this year due to the California drought.
While the California season gets under way, there are also tomatoes from several other locations including crossings from Mexico into California, Arizona and Texas.
San Joaquin Valley tomatoes, stone fruit and vegetables – grossing about $5000 to Chicago; $7400 to New York City.
New Jersey blueberry shipments are underway, plus the Garden State’s peach season is coming soon. Additionally, in Idaho, fruit shipments take a big hit for this season.
New Jersey weather warmed up in mid May and helped bring on blueberries. New Jersey blueberry shipments get underway any day now with the Duke variety. Blues should be in good volume heading in the Fourth of July holiday. Shipments should continue through late July.
New Jersey Peach Shipments
It will be the middle of July before New Jersey peach shipments hit good volumes. Meanwhile peak loadings will arrive later in July and continue through the end of September.
Idaho Fruit Shipments
An Idaho freeze last November in Treasure Valley with temperatures plunging below zero for four straight days resulted in major damage to some fruit trees that had not had a chance to go into dormancy. Many trees have long cracks that occurred when sap and water had not had a chance to move down to the root system. This caused the wood to split open.
In general, apples appear to have weathered the freeze better than other fruit such as prune trees and peach trees. Some fruit trees probably lost two years of their production capability as a result of the November cold. A record warm February and near-record warm March that caused trees to bloom much earlier than normal was followed by an April 3 freeze that damaged blooms.
Idaho potatoes – grossing about $4900 to Philadelphia.
Nathel & Nathel Inc. has expanded operations on the Hunts Point Terminal Market located in the South Bronx of New York City.
The New York-based wholesaler has added refrigeration capacity, reconfigured its fruit and vegetable divisions and improved its docks for truck loading and unloading. Following the closure of Krisp-Pak Sales Corp. in 2012, Nathel & Nathel took over its units and was working on closing on the purchase of units from the defunct Korean Farm, which went out of business in 2014.
Nathel & Nathel now distributes produce from to 23 units.
The distributor also upgraded the warehouse to Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point standards.
Better refrigeration control in different zones will result from the improvements, according to company vice president Sheldon Nathel said. It also should result in better temperature control for fruits and vegetables as well as better organize the operation, making it more efficient.
Nathel & Nathel sells a full line of fruits and vegetables, including tropicals and specialties, to customers throughout the Tri-State region.
The Hunts Point Terminal Market occupies 329 acres and supports 115 private wholesalers that employ over 8,000 people.
Hunts Point wholesalers are paying a freight rate of about $5000 from the Lower Rio Grand Valley of Texas for fruits and vegetables, and about $4800 for Idaho potatoes.
Ohio has more than the Bengals, Browns and Buckeyes. This time of year it becomes an important player in shipping vegetables.
Ohio Vegetable Shipments
The state got underway with radishes mid-May, and dill, cilantro and turnip and mustard greens by the end of the month. Following shortly after that were beets, lettuces, parsley, sweet corn, green onions and celery.
Ohio radish shipments continue from mid-May to mid-November, with other commodities starting in June and winding down in October.
Then you have sweet corn, celery and peppers, which should get underway in mid- to late July and last until the first frost.
Ohio experienced its hottest May since 1988 — which was a drought year. Some daytime highs were in the 90s, although the 80s were more typical. The heat helped bring the vegetable crops on earlier and grow faster.
Here are a few of the major shippers of Ohio vegetables:
Bettinger Farms Inc., Swanton, OH
Wiers Farm Inc. and Dutch Maid Produce, Willard, OH.
Holthouse Farms, Willard, OH.
Buurma Farms, Willard, OH
The harvest of California navel oranges is winding down as July approaches and the season’s production could be close to 81 million cartons, although late season citrus is requiring more grading as marketable product keeps falling. At the same, Valencia orange shipments are replacing navels.
For much of the season, utilization rates — the percentage of fruit that could be sold as fresh — remained in the low 80s, but now it has dipped into the 70s as the crop has been picked over. Subpar oranges are diverted to juice.
Meanwhile, harvest is under way for a diminished Valencia orange crop. Growers this season are expected to ship a 20-million-carton crop, down from 22 million cartons last year and a little more than half the 39 million cartons produced in 2001-02.
Only about 25 to 30 percent into that crop has been harvest, but the Valencias are coming out fewer than expected.
The harvest hits as a fourth year of the California drought and its related federal surface water shutoffs have resulted in many growers taking trees out of production. It is estimated as many as 50,000 acres of orange and other citrus trees would be bulldozed.
The orchard removals could take a particular toll on Valencia trees, which were already being replaced with navels and other more lucrative citrus varieties before the drought began. Valencia acreage has seen a precipitous decline in recent years; there are about 34,000 bearing acres this year, down from 65,000 in 2001-02.
San Joaquin Valley produce rates for citrus, veggies and fruit have been fluctuating by nearly a $1000 in a given week to New York City. On average, rates appear to be around $7700 to the Big Apple.
Holt Logistics Corp., of Gloucester City, NJ has landed separate business agreementsthat has attacted two additional weekly shipments from South America and Central America to Philadelphia’s Packer Avenue Marine Terminal.
The “South American Express” service started June 3rd, operated by SeaLand, the Denmark-based Maersk Group’s intra-Americas regional ocean carrier, plans to begin calling on the terminal.
The service previously terminated in Norfolk, Va., and the change expands SeaLand’s direct connections from Central America into the northeast and provides shippers with better access to U.S. consumers and a user-friendly docking environment for refrigerated peribshable goods, including tropical fruits and other commodities, according to a news release.
Additionally, a joint vessel sharing agreement between SeaLand and American President Lines is designed to create a new “North American Express” service that should attract an additional ship to the terminal each week.
The “North Atlantic Express” service is pending regulatory approval but is scheduled to commence in late June.
The service rotation plans to cycle between the Manzanillo International Terminal in Panama, Cartagena, Columbia, south Florida, Savannah, Ga., Philadelphia and New York.
It boosts SeaLand’s network and offers additional direct connections and service between the West Coast of South America, Central America, the Caribbean and the U.S. East Coast. Business at the Port of Philadelphia continues to grow, and the addition of two weekly service calls from SeaLand/APL will increase efficiency, shorten overall transit times and provide greater opportunities to expand business in both perishable and non-perishable commerce between North and South America.
In 2014 TransFresh Corporation introduced the Tectrol Storage Solution utilizing BreatheWay Technology by California produce company Apio to provide more reliable storage for fresh blueberries. While the produce trucker hauling these berries may never see the process, that driver should benefit from it.
Rich Macleod, TransFresh vice president, pallet division, based in Salinas, CA, says, “There’s a reason we call it a storage solution….blueberry growers store their blueberries (in a controlled atmosphere bag) prior to shipping. The storage bag is removed before being shipped.”
He adds the bag is dynamically different from modified atmosphere for which TransFresh has built a name with strawberries.
Macleod points out blueberries after harvest are sometimes stored as long as four to six weeks as a way of balancing the market.
“To the driver that means that load will be available on a scheduled basis,” Macleod relates. “For example, he will know he needs to be in the Northwest every Tuesday to pick up six pallets of blueberries. It won’t be this frantic thing like picking up and delivering strawberries or cherries.”
Additionally, Macleod sees the Storage Solution as reducing the chances of quality problems at destination, which could lead to claims or deductions from the freight rate.
“When the market is orderly, that’s good for everybody,” he says.
Looking to the future, Macleod notes they are starting to solve the blueberry storage solutions for international transportation. If the shipper is an exporter, when those berries are loaded into a 40-f00t sea van, the product is placed in a controlled atmosphere. He also sees the day when this could be applicable for blueberries and other items being imported to by US companies from countries such as Chile and Peru.
“I don’t see this replacing containers,, but it could certainly impact the number of containers used. I see them being used side by side,” he says.
In the controlled atmosphere systems there is a device that records the atmosphere for the entire container. However, Macleod sees this being cost prohibitive to something like that in each pallet. However, there is research being conducted in this area.