Logistics: Port Everglades
Port Everglades Receives First Shipment in New Ocean-To-Air Perishables Program
A shipment of snow peas from Guatemala were flown from South Florida to Amsterdam Wednesday evening, February 2, as part of Florida's first ocean-to-air transshipment program designed to save perishable cargo shippers time and money.
Port Everglades was the port of entry for the first shipment of perishable cargo participating in the new program, which was developed in partnership with Crowley Maritime Corp's Miami-based subsidiary Customized Brokers and Miami International Airport (MIA).
The program allows Central American produce to reach European markets faster by expediting turn times and expanding customers' distribution.
Customized Brokers and MIA recently received approval from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to coordinate ocean shipments of produce from Latin America to Port Everglades, and then on to cargo planes at MIA for a flight to their final destinations in Europe and Asia. CBP granted approval for expedited processing of the ocean-to-air shipments in addition to the waving of Customs duties.
The 10 tons of peas were safely packaged for easy transfer from an ocean container to air cargo containers while maintaining freshness. After discharge at Crowley's Port Everglades terminal, the cargo container was trucked south in its ocean container to MIA for transfer to air cargo containers and loading on the Amsterdam-bound Centurion Cargo flight.
"This integrated ocean-to-air cold chain solution will offer customers the most efficient way to speed perishables to new markets," said Frank Larkin, Crowley senior vice president and general manager, logistics. "As customers seek new markets to distribute their produce, this is a valuable offering in our full suite of services and embodies our commitment to innovation and high performance at Crowley."