It’s no surprise the past year has presented significant challenges within the global and local supply chain, for which the effects are still being felt across all industries.
This remains particularly relevant in Australia, with the ongoing impact of the pandemic resulting in increased equipment lead times, congestion, and schedule delays.
For perishable reefer cargo, this is a real pain point, as these impediments have the potential to limit the ability to get high-quality produce to market in a timely manner and take advantage of early season premiums.
Heading into this Australian citrus export season, the good news is that seasonal conditions look promising, however it’s worth noting that growers face their own unique challenges with tight labour supply in harvesting, and the fruit fly outbreak in South Australia adding another element that must be considered.
Domestically we expect to see a shift in logistics needs compared to previous seasons, with the fruit fly outbreak resulting in a large volume of fruit from South Australia being trucked to Victoria with increased packing, quality control and equipment requirements.
To handle this effectively will require significant preplanning and additional resources to manage equipment steering, cold treatment setups and vessel monitoring.
As mentioned above, equipment supply across the market will remain a key driver in carrier selection as increased empty lead times combined with strong global demand push carriers to focus on supply markets which provide both strong productivity and return. This, along with vessel schedule reliability, continues to be our highest area of focus at Hamburg Süd.
These issues highlight the importance of cargo execution and developing trusted logistic partnerships with companies that know your business and have the capabilities of handling such a complex export situation.
We have found communication and collaboration are crucial to drive business agility and mitigate the impact of supply chain disruptions for our clients.
In the lead up to the season we have continued to work closely with our partners, both old and new, to optimise capacity in the key export trades, largely focussed in Asia and North America.
Constant communication is now the key focus to ensure that we have both the space and equipment in the right place at the right time.
Our highly skilled export reefer team has extensive knowledge of cold treatment procedures and cargo care, helping to preserve your products appearance, freshness and flavour. Technology development via our Remote Container Management (RCM) continues to deliver in-depth temperature data, meaning peace of mind and no surprises upon delivery to your customer at destination.
At Hamburg Süd, our business is about people, not containers, and we value the trust our partners have in us to ensure quality delivery of their cargo to their customers. This remains extremely relevant in the perishable export market, in which trust, quality and reliability are crucial.
