What makes fresh produce so inviting at the grocery store? In most cases, one of the top responses is likely the appearance. The most critical criterion for maintaining quality appearance along with the overall freshness of produce is to ensure that the journey of the produce from farm to fork is under ambient conditions.
Perishables form the biggest vertical or the biggest business segment for the air freight industry. Sixteen percent of the overall freight that is carried by all airlines is attributed to perishables. This is also one of the fastest growing segments. In fact, even with the current overall slump in air freight figures, the only product category that has seen growth are perishables.
“Over the last few years, the product share of perishables has grown by two percentage points. So the 16 percent product share for perishables was 14 percent five years ago,” observes Eric Mauroux, Air France KLM Martinair (AFKLM) Cargo’s global head of perishables logistics. Mauroux sees this trend to continue in the years to come. “Despite the drop in overall freight numbers, the only product category that has seen growth are perishables,” Mauroux said. Thus, the stakes are high, not only for the perishable growers and manufacturers, but for the transportation and logistics services providers that move, store, process, and deliver their products. This has prompted all players in the air cargo industry to up the ante and improve their performance if it wants to take advantage of the growing perishables market and avoid losing out to disruptors and other modes of transport.
Fresh programmes and services
This story is from the November 2019 edition of The STAT Trade Times.
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This story is from the November 2019 edition of The STAT Trade Times.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
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