Rethinking logistics: the true transit time of fruit
Beyond transport routes, the fruit's lifespan begins from harvest, requiring comprehensive planning that considers every stage of the process, from the field to the supermarket shelf.
In the international trade of perishable goods, the concept of "transit time" is often limited to what transport companies publish: the time between departure and arrival at the destination. However, this calculation does not reflect the full reality. Fruit begins to age from the moment it is harvested and goes through several critical stages—processing, storage, dispatch, and release—that are not considered in logistics itineraries, affecting its final condition and customer satisfaction.
When these additional times are ignored, the impact can be significant. Delays at ports such as Rotterdam, Manzanillo, and Algeciras have shown that, even if ships meet the stipulated deadlines, fruit can remain in containers for extra days, leading to quality losses and trade tensions due to missed delivery windows.
Given this scenario, experts recommend that exporters adjust their plans by considering the entire fruit lifecycle, evaluating terminal efficiency, actual release times, and real-time information. Only in this way will it be possible to synchronize logistics with the product's biological rhythm and ensure that it arrives fresh to the end consumer.
Source: portalfruticola.com
