Perishable import-export industry to grow, continue to refine itself

The amount of perishable goods – everything from vegetables to pharmaceuticals to cooking oil – coming into and leaving the United States is only expected to grow in the coming years. However, the industry that moves these valuable, time- and temperature-sensitive products is always looking for ways to get them to market more efficiently so that they will stay fresh for consumers longer.

  That ceaseless race against the clock means the logistics industry changes on a dime, thanks to new technologies. It’s also an opportunity in that no one seaport or airport can ever get too comfortable in its dominance for trade in a particular product.

  “Miami plays a key role in a number of things. One thing we do very well with is flowers,” WorldCity President Ken Roberts told an audience of more than 80 at the company’s Trade Connections on Aug. 30. “Miami did more than 82 percent of fresh-cut flower imports. It was the second-ranked [Customs] district for imports of fresh or chilled fish, No. 2 for asparagus behind San Diego [and] No. 3 for wine.”

Those figures come from WorldCity’s recently released Perishables TradeNumbers, an annual publication that analyzes the country’s trade in everything from pharmaceuticals to cooking oils.

The biggest trend in the highly specialized industry is ensuring products stay as fresh as possible for as long as possible by the time they reach the end user. This requires a mix of both state-of-the-art packaging and tracking technology, as well as ensuring retailers know which items to sell first.

“Average people throw out 50 percent of what they buy, probably because it doesn’t make it until the time” they’re ready to use it, said J.P. Edmond, director of Cold Chain Research at the Electro-Optical Systems Laboratory at Georgia Tech. “The food industry is going to need to have a guarantee of shelf life when they leave the store.

“The quality is related to how we transfer these products,” he added.

Miami, Edmond noted, has long served as a research laboratory, where everything from insulating “blankets” to putting serial numbers on products to track their movement across the world has been tested.

These technologies have also helped shift the momentum on the retail side from a “first in last out” to a “first expired first out” mindset, he said.

Those technologies are also a key part of the know-how that’s indispensable in perishable logistics. That knowledge is critical when it comes financing the movement of these goods.

“Perishables take a lot more monitoring and there are a lot of laws to comply with,” said Carmen Alvarez, vice president and senior commercial and industrial lender at Banesco USA.

Alvarez, the point person for the bank’s perishable financing portfolio, says examination begins with the company, and how long they’ve been doing business with the kind of product for which it is seeking financing.

“We also look at where they store the goods. They have to have some specialized warehouses to put these things in,” she added. “When we are looking at a new borrower, we actually research and see how much shelf life the item has.”

Another critical component to getting perishables onto shelves as fast as possible – giving them more shelf life for consumers – is optimizing the logistics networks on which they travel.

Flagler Development Co. is in the midst of developing a 1 million square foot logistics center adjacent to Miami International Airport. The company is positioning this as an inland port to capitalize on the increased traffic many hope will come through the revamped Panama Canal in 2014.

At the moment PortMiami “can’t handle [perishable cargo that usually travels on breakbulk refrigerated ships] and obviously ambient temperature in Miami could damage that,” said Manny Fernandez, executive vice president for Logistics Operations for Flagler Development.

Flagler is hoping that by creating infrastructure capability and using technology, Miami can capture some of the cargo that offloads in Savannah and other points north and is then trucked south.

“By air, 70 percent of perishables come through Miami International Airport,” Fernandez said. “There’s no reason the same can’t come by ocean.”

WorldCity’s Trade Connections is sponsored by Miami International Airport, PortMiami, Seaboard Marine, Flagler Development and Banesco. It is one of five WorldCity events. The next Trade Connections event is Dec. 12.