Posts Tagged “transit times”
Post-harvest losses continue to pressure the fresh produce industry, with moisture loss, oxidation, and physical damage during storage and transport accounting for a significant share of wasted product. As supply chains lengthen and retailers demand longer shelf life with less spoilage, packaging technology is playing an increasingly central role in how growers, processors, and distributors manage quality from farm to shelf.
Temperature fluctuations, exposure to oxygen, and inconsistent handling between harvest and retail remain among the most common causes of quality degradation in fresh produce. For exporters in particular, extended transit times raise the stakes, since even minor packaging shortcomings can result in product arriving at its destination in unsellable condition. This has pushed many operations to reassess how they package goods at the point of processing, rather than relying solely on cold chain logistics.
Vacuum packaging is one tool addressing these issues. By removing air from a package before sealing, vacuum sealing slows oxidation and limits the conditions that support microbial growth, which can extend usable shelf life for suitable products. The technology is not applicable to all fresh produce, but it has found practical use across categories including herbs, mushrooms, dried fruits, processed and cut vegetables, and prepared or ready-to-eat foods, where air exposure is a primary driver of quality loss. Commercial chamber vacuum sealers, used widely in food processing and packaging facilities, allow operators to apply consistent vacuum levels across batches, which supports more predictable shelf-life outcomes compared with manual or less controlled sealing methods.
Beyond shelf-life extension, vacuum packaging is increasingly viewed through a sustainability lens. Reducing spoilage during storage and transit lowers food waste, while more stable shelf life gives processors and distributors greater flexibility in inventory planning and order fulfillment. For exporters managing longer transit windows, this can translate into fewer rejected shipments and reduced losses across the supply chain.
Equipment manufacturers serving this space include Promarksvac Corporation, which produces commercial chamber vacuum sealers and vacuum packaging equipment for food processing, packaging, and industrial applications. Introvac is another supplier in the sector, offering commercial vacuum packaging and sealing equipment aimed at businesses seeking dependable, repeatable packaging performance across production runs.
As fresh produce supply chains continue to navigate rising logistics costs and sustainability expectations, packaging equipment manufacturers are likely to keep refining vacuum sealing systems to handle a broader range of products and throughput demands. For an industry where product quality can be lost in the space between harvest and shelf, continued advances in food packaging equipment are expected to remain a focus area for processors and exporters alike.
StePac PCC, a leader in Modified Atmosphere Packaging (MAP) for fresh produce, is offering a solution to tackle the challenges associated with long transit times.
For example, the long distance between origin and destination, dragon fruit faces a weeks-long trek that threatens its quality. This adds insult to injury, as the industry is already grappling with falling prices from a glut of pitahaya (dragon fruit) in the US and Mexico.
To stay ahead in the now-crowded domestic pitahaya market, growers and shippers must outsmart the clock or risk delivering lackluster fruit.
StePac PCC’s packaging is designed specifically for dragon fruit. The company’s new product is a tailored version of the proprietary Xtend® MA/MH packaging and aims to preserve the shelf life of pitahayas en route from Ecuador to the US and Europe.
StePac notes company engineers mold these materials into different formats, including pallet shrouds, bin liners, and, in this case, a film to protect pitahayas.
The company reports the film was carefully crafted for pitahayas, which are prone to dehydration and wilting due to their high respiration rate.
The packaging was designed to slow this process down by balancing oxygen and carbon dioxide concentrations. The film also controls moisture to maintain the fruit’s firmness and protruding bracts, and preserves its vibrant, glossy appearance throughout the trip.
Pitahaya has been traditionally shipped loose or in basic packaging formats providing little to no control over the internal atmosphere or humidity, offering limited protection during long sea voyages. Right now, the packaging allows the fruit to withstand sea shipments of three weeks or more.
Shelf-life extension varies depending on conditions, but this significantly exceeds what is achievable with traditional packaging.
The fruit is a fast-growing, high-value product with strong global demand facing significant postharvest challenges during long-distance shipments.
Growers were struggling to reach distant markets in acceptable condition, which made dragon fruit a natural candidate for a tailored modified packaging.
The Company studied pitahaya’s respiratory behavior, moisture sensitivity, and postharvest challenges for three years.
StePac then adjusted film permeability to create the optimal internal atmosphere under real supply chain conditions and collaborated with growers and shippers to test the product.
Repeated trials were conducted with frequent field visits, and optimization of postharvest handling protocols, as well as refinement of the packaging design to ensure consistent performance.
As far as pricing, it is noted exporters report benefits such as reduced waste, improved quality, and access to new markets, which generally outweigh the additional packaging costs by yielding higher returns.
The company is currently working to scale its proprietary packaging to other fruits, since each deal comes with its own set of challenges.
Fruits and vegetables have very different respiration rates, sensitivities to low oxygen, and critical to elevated carbon dioxide concentrations, as well as different moisture requirements.
While Texans tend to boast about how big everything is in the Lone Star State, it is a major shipper of fresh produce, ranking in the top 10 for its volume with fresh fruits and vegetables. Many Texas produce shippers also have invested in farming operations in Mexico, and a lot of the product crosses the border into the Lower Rio Grande Valley for distribution throughout the USA and Canada.
The valley, and more specifically, Pharr, TX will be even more important in the future as a distribution point for Mexican grown produce. It is located on Highway 281 which runs north all the way into Canada. Also of importance is the 3.2-mile-long Pharr-Reynosa International Bridge connecting Mexico and south Texas. It is the longest port-of-entry bridge.
While Pharr remains relatively small with a population of 75,000 residents, the city has purchased 90 acres just west of the bridge with aim of developing a produce district with warehouses for produce destined for shipping throughout North America.
Pharr also will gain importance with the completion of the Autopista Durango-Mazatlan cross continental Mexican highway. It is a 143-mile-long stretch of highway scheduled for completion by the end of this year. It was built with the intention of trucks hauling West Mexican produce to ports of entry in Texas. The new highway ends very near Pharr.
The new road is supposed to reduce transit times of trucks from West Mexico by a full day to points in the eastern half of the USA and Canada.
The state of Texas, not including Mexico, grows and ships over 70 different fruits, vegetables and nuts. It is the fourth ranking shipper of watermelons in the USA, accounting for 15 percent of the country’s watermelons. This time of the year Lower Rio Grande Valley grapefruit becomes a major item for loads.
The Lone Star State also is a major grower/shipper of onions, cabbage, spinach, and carrots.