Page 10 - STAT-November-2023-for-Magzter

industryreport

PERISHABLES

SHIPMENTS BY AIR

IS GROWING AMIDST

CHALLENGES

While seafood has been the fastest growing commodity in the last
three years for Kuehne+Nagel, top destinations for fresh products
include India, Kenya and the Netherlands for Etihad Cargo.
Jyothi Shankaran

ith demand increasing for the previous year, establishing a three-year
perishables across the world, tonnage record.
shipping them by air not only Bengaluru Airport processed exports of
Wsaves precious time for cargo 684,648 kgs of mangoes, a significant rise
that has a short shelf life but also ensures from 305,521 kgs exported in the previ-
it reaches the final destination as fresh as ous year. This season's exports saw an 86
plucked from the ground. percent increase in the number of pieces
The challenges for airlines and forward- with approximately 1.7 million pieces of
ers involved in moving perishables across mangoes being exported.
the globe are countless as are the regula- Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International
tions governing them. The International Airport (CSMIA) reported exports of 4,700
Air Transport Association (IATA) has issued tonnes of mangoes in 2023, a 318 percent
Perishable Cargo Regulations (PCR) to increase compared to 1,123 tonnes in 2022.
streamline the shipments of perishables. The key aspect contributing to the achieve-
"Failures along the cold chain, which can ment is the recent approval granted by the
be catastrophic for small businesses, are at United States Department of Agriculture
times due to improper documentation, la- (USDA) for the export of Indian mangoes to
belling or poor packaging. The PCR has all the United States. The approval comes after
the up-to-date, best-practice and guidance a hiatus in mango exports to the USA since
information you need to develop loss- 2020, primarily due to travel restrictions im-
minimising perishable shipping processes," posed on the USDA inspectors to visit India
IATA says in its update. during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Miami International Airport, the gateway
for imports from Latin America, for example, Key challenges
reports 40 percent tonnage of fresh cut flow- When Kuehne+Nagel launched FreshChain,
ers among perishables imports by October it wanted to demonstrate to the market that
2023 (up from 38 percent in 2022) followed it was possible to create a global perishables
by fish fillets (21 percent) and fish (eight network with quality as a differentiator. "We
percent). By value, fresh cut flowers increased wanted our customers to be able to rely on a
seven percent to $1.2 billion while fish fillets global consistency adhering to the strict-
declined to $1.3 billion. est standards even when using multiple
Kempegowda International Airport, stations,” says Dennis Verkooy, Senior Vice
Bengaluru recorded a 124 percent surge President, Global Perishables Air Logistics,
in mango exports in 2023, compared to Kuehne+Nagel. “Since its inception, the
8 | NOVEMBER 2023 www.stattimes.com