Cool Logistics

Food – Flowers -
Medicines
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 In the wealthy consumer societies of the world,
eating fresh food at the table every day of the year
has become a standard part of life
–so that no one questions its availability or even
bothers to its placing
It just comes from the supermarket or the
pharmacy.
But behind the scenes, the logistics industry is a
vital supply line

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This has become both
an emotional
as well as political topic,

The idea of flying or moving quantities of fruit,

vegetables and seafood
over long distances evokes cries of environmental
pollution and the depriving of markets for local
producers.

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But just think a little more about it, and
there are some other socially important
areas surrounding this subject that deserve
to be mentioned. In a massively capital-
intensive industry, no one has worked harder
than – or indeed has invested as much
money as – the aviation industry in its effort
to ‘clean up its act’ and provide cheaper
transportation costs while improving its
impact on the environment.
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Likewise, little mention is made of the
benefits that accrue to the growers and
their employees in some very poor parts
of the developing world from their
ability to air freight valuable
consignments of foreign currency-
earning perishables consumer markets in
more wealthy countries around the
globe.
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The flower-growing industry in Kenya is a good example. It
is one of the country’s leading sources of foreign revenue,
gainfully employing some 50,000 workers who are
growing, picking, grading and packing cut flowers in a
country with high rates of unemployment and a few well-
paid jobs. This industry is now positioned alongside tea
growing and tourism as one of Kenya’s leading foreign
exchange earners. In a similar way, asparagus is a major
revenue earner for Peru, with the country having become
the world’s largest single exporter of the luxury comestible
(eatable), bringing in more than $480 million to the
national exchange in 2011
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On the ground in these countries the undeniable
fact is that housing, schools, modern medical
facilities – let alone the ability to earn a decent
living wage on a regular basis
– have all been provided by a perishables industry
that relies almost entirely on the transportation of
its goods by air to the world’s consumer markets,
where they have become an everyday commodity
on the supermarket shelves

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Fresh food now flies every day from countries all around
the world to the consumer societies that regard luxury
goods as a normal commodity of life.
In many countries there is now no seasonal period in
which exotic (foreign) fresh fruits and vegetables are
available in the shops
– they are there for sale 365 days a year, although in most
parts of the world there are still short seasons that can be
seen for locally grown and sourced produce. It has led to a
situation where the end-consumers often have no idea at
all or interest in where the food on their table comes
from. Ask them the question, and the answer will usually
be ‘From the supermarket.’

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Well, yes, that is true, more often than not it does – but
how does that food get to the supermarket in the first
place?
Most important, the question is how did it get there in a
fresh enough state to be attractive to the buyer and
saleable as an edible commodity?
The answer is that the modern air freight industry can now
provide all the expertise and facilities required, and the
consumer has responded eagerly to the year-round
availability of fresh produce – in the UK alone the
importing of perishables has trebled (three times) in the
last ten years
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According to IATA, perishable goods were among
the first commercial commodities
to be carried regularly by air,
and
over the years the airlines have developed very
effective and cost-effective handling techniques to
look after chilled and frozen products in transport

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The ability of air transport to move huge amounts of food
to feed a needy population became front-page news
during the days of the Berlin Airlift,
when 2 million people were left without access to food
and fuel by conventional modes of road and rail transport.
A total of 2.3 million tonnes of food and fuel were airlifted
into the city on 277,569 flights during the period, and the
whole operation became a high-profile illustration of the
way the delivery of food and other perishable
commodities could work in the future.

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Temperature-controlled
containers
One of the biggest advances in recent years has been the
introduction of the temperature-controlled air freight
container;
different versions of these are now available from
suppliers such as Sweden-based Envirotainer
or C-Safe, a joint venture between AmSafe and AcuTemp
of the US

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Active temperature-controlled containers allow the
carriage of commodities at a constant temperature, both
in the air and on the ground, boosting the life of
temperature-sensitive commodities by preserving the cool
chain throughout the complete life cycle of the end-to-end
transportation process. They work by an active
temperature-control system based on compressor cooling
and electric heating equipment, or have an active
temperature control system based on dry ice refrigeration.
The standard size containers can be carried on board most
common wide-body aircraft types

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The key features for consistent temperature control contained in
the most commonly available standard temperature-sensitive
containers are

insulated container shell built in an all-composite material for

superior insulation properties, full electric heating and compressor
cooling system, rechargeable batteries that can be charged at
standard AC power connection points, enhanced air circulation
system inside the container ensuring a low temperature gradient
within the entire cargo space, air circulated by the heating and
cooling unit is close to the set temperature, an easy-to-use control
unit allows simple operation of the container, fully validated
recording solutions for temperature and battery information and
able to be accessed from all sides by forklifts, even when fully
loaded, eliminating the need for roller beds to move the containers
in the warehouse and to and from trucking docks.
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Temperature-controlled containers come in
different sizes and technical specifications. They are
suitable for all types of perishable shipments like
meat, seafood, fruits, vegetables and dairy
products. In addition, because each temperature-
controlled container has its own mechanism by
which the parameters can be preset, airlines can
transport a wide range of products on the same
flight.
Q/A