ShareTransportation of perishables: shift from air to ocean
According to Seabury, a global advisory firm specialized in transportation, the past decade has seen a continuous shift of volumes from shipping by air to ocean.
According to Seabury, a global advisory firm specialized in transportation, the past decade has seen a continuous shift of volumes from shipping by air to ocean.
A decade ago, tomatoes were just as likely to be transported by air as in a reefer container. Today, tomatoes are transported almost entirely in containers. The same holds true for numerous other perishable commodities.
If air cargo’s share of total trade had remained constant since the year 2000, 15.2M tonnes of cargo would still be transported by air rather than by ocean. That translates to an additional 1.5M TEU (57.8Mm3) of cargo each year moving by ocean rather than by air.
Perishables have been one of the main commodity categories for mode shift, with volumes worth approximately 100k TEU (3.85 Mm3) per year having shifted to ocean, nearly all of which happened in the fresh foods sector. The shift is particularly pronounced in certain perishable commodities such as tomatoes (+48%), capsicum (+46%), fresh fish (+33%), lettuce (+20%) and pineapples (+16%), while figures for other vegetables have gone up by 14%.
The report adds that new technology in controlled atmosphere containers has the potential to further strengthen this trend.
A decade ago, tomatoes were just as likely to be transported by air as in a reefer container. Today, tomatoes are transported almost entirely in containers. The same holds true for numerous other perishable commodities.
If air cargo’s share of total trade had remained constant since the year 2000, 15.2M tonnes of cargo would still be transported by air rather than by ocean. That translates to an additional 1.5M TEU (57.8Mm3) of cargo each year moving by ocean rather than by air.
Perishables have been one of the main commodity categories for mode shift, with volumes worth approximately 100k TEU (3.85 Mm3) per year having shifted to ocean, nearly all of which happened in the fresh foods sector. The shift is particularly pronounced in certain perishable commodities such as tomatoes (+48%), capsicum (+46%), fresh fish (+33%), lettuce (+20%) and pineapples (+16%), while figures for other vegetables have gone up by 14%.
The report adds that new technology in controlled atmosphere containers has the potential to further strengthen this trend.