Freight to Plate: A taste for the exotic

Competition from the sea

Air cargo divisions can install all the cool rooms they can buy, but it still won’t change the fact that seafreight will always be cheaper than airfreight. Today, the ocean mode remains one of the chief threats to air carrier’s market share of the food market.

Also, shippers are constantly ex­perimenting with new techniques to extend the shelf-life of various com­modities for long sea voyages. In the last few years, some of these methods include higher-quality reefer contain­ers; microwave sterilization, where certain types of packaged goods are heated with microwaves to kill patho­gens; antimicrobial edible coatings on meat to extend shelf life up to 13 days; and placing carbon-dioxide-emitting patches to slow down decomposition of meat and seafood. As a result, some perishables with longer shelf-lives, such as pineapples and stone fruit, made the switch to ocean transit long ago.

In reality, though, a modal shift is rarely that simple, said Markus Fell­mann, global vice president of forward­er Hellmann Perishable Logistics. “Cer­tain commodities on certain lanes and certain volumes have transferred to ocean. However, it is usually never just ocean or air,” he said. “Oceanfreight has attracted some volume, but airfreight will definitely continue to play a very important role in perishable logistics – not at previous years’ growth rates, but certainly with expected growing numbers, year over year.”

Some of Hellmann’s top-volume lanes for food include Latin America to Europe and North America to Asia and the Middle East. More specifically, Fellmann said, there is stronger traffic from the U.S. West Coast to Australia, Asia and the Middle East. “Larger-volume lanes mean usually larger individual shipments, which enable us to move more volume with the same amount of staff,” he said.

One way to be more competitive with seafreight is to provide better protection for the cargo, Fellmann said. In cooperation with an engineer­ing firm, Hellmann has created the “Smart Visibility Tool,” which provides a real-time tracking device in each shipment, constantly monitors tem­perature, sends alerts when doors are opened and records the G-forces the air cargo experiences. The tool, he says, is “increasingly popular” with customers who ship high-value com­modities. “Exceptions often can be de­tected when occurred and damage can be prevented,” he said. “The majority of its cost can be offset by reduced transport insurance cost.”