The shipment of fresh and frozen produce is vital to the survival of the people of the Pacific Islands. They rely on regular shipments to maintain stock on the shelves of supermarkets and the availability of fresh produce in restaurants to satisfy the tourists and locals. In order to maximise the quality of produce being shipped with PDL, there are 3 main points we consider vital for our shippers to be aware of.

Hot Loading

Many shippers honestly believe that reefer containers are blast freezers capable of quickly lowering the temperature of fresh and frozen goods. This is simply not the case. Refrigerated containers are designed to maintain cargo temperature only.

A supplier of Fruit picked his export produce in the summer heat and packed it into a container without pre-cooling. The container was trucked to the load port and put on power. It took several days before the container was able to stabilise the internal temperature and bring it down to the carriage temperature. In the meantime the condensation from the trapped heat of the produce had stewed the fruit.

Cargo MUST be pre-cooled to the carriage temperature before loading into the container.

Maximum load limit

In every reefer container is a distinct line running around the walls of the container approximately a 50cm from the roof. This line is a guide to shippers not to load above. The reason for this gap between the cargo and the container roof is to allow adequate cold airflow around the cargo. Shipper who load above this line run the risk of poor airflow, which promotes hot spots around the cargo. At delivery, a buyer who takes delivery of a shipment which has been damaged will often the reject the whole shipment, and also be short of vital product to sell. This results in unnecessary costs, and unhappy clients. Both, PDL does not want to see!

Vent Settings

A third important factor in chilled cargo transport is air exchange. Chilled products ‘breathe’, and so condensation can build up in a container that can damage it’s contents. Refrigerated shipping containers are equipped with air vents that are manually set to exchange inside air at certain rates. This is measured in Cubic Feet per minute or Cubic Metres per hour.

This volume of air exchange must be advised to the shipping line at the time of booking so the ship’s crew can ensure this exchange is maintained at sea. A practice in the past was to advise air exchange as a percentage eg: “vents open 20%”. This is not acceptable as there are several container manufacturers in many global locations who use widely differing vents on their containers. 20% open on one container type may exchange hundreds of Cubic Metres per Hour less than another container type. The result of this can be disastrous!

Always provide air exchange rates by the volume of air to be exchanged.

Fresh and frozen goods handling takes into account products that require controlled temperatures as well as chilling or freezing. Commodities falling into this category include fish, frozen meats, poultry and packeted food such as oven fries. Examples of fresh goods include premium chilled meat cuts, pears, apples, stone fruit and vegetables.

Some products that require controlled temperatures can include premium wines, pharmaceuticals and even chocolate biscuits.