Panalpina juices organic perishables business with Certysis license

The fresh avocados that Panalpina ships to Euorpean grocers just got a little greener. The Swiss forwarder’s hub at Luxembourg Airport (LUX) has been officially licensed by bio-certification group Certysis to ship organic fruits and vegetables.

Panalpina is now the only licensed 3PL to handle organic produce at LUX. Luxembourg has now been to Panalpina’s two other Certysis-licensed airport locations in Europe: London Heathrow and Amsterdam. Panalpina’s operations at all three hubs have direct access to the tarmac, giving the 3PL the shortest connection between aircraft and warehousing facilities.

“To be able to sell organic fruits or vegetables in the supermarket, every part of the supply chain, from grower to final distributor, needs to be certified by one of the controlling bodies,” said Quint Wilken, Panalpina’s regional head of Panalpina’s Perishables Europe division. “If the chain is broken, the product is not allowed to be called organic anymore.”

Avocados, and other fresh fruits and vegetables, are flown in directly from Mexico using a Panalpina 747-8 freighter, before being trucked to their final destinations across Europe.

The certification helps strengthen Panalpina’s Perishables Network, which was launched in April this year, which provides a choice of multiple modes of transport for fresh produce, depending on urgency and shipment size. These include temperature-controlled airfreight, seafreight, road and courier services and charter services.

To learn more about future innovations in perishables transport, freight forwarding and airfreight logistics, join us at Air Cargo World’s ELEVATE Conference in Miami, Oct. 2. Click here for registration information.