b'NOVEMBER 21 - DECEMBER 18, 2022TEMPERATURE-CONTROLLED LOGISTICS 9Perishable supply chain smoothing out withDHLs network in Latin America heavy pivot back to ocean from airfreight key to perishable haulsAirfreight of perishables boomed as the ocean freight side of the supply chainBy Chris Barnett, AJOTslowed to a crawl with port delays, labor shortages and trucking snarls. ButGlobal jet freighter oper- roundnorthtotheU.Swith the supply chain is smoothing out and airfreight perishable movements areator DHL is well known forsome commodities like fruits, moving closer to normalat least for now. itsswiftlytransportedandornamental plants, vegetables, By Chris Barnett, AJOT deliverede-commerceloadsfresh fish, and other seafood butthevisuallydistinctivemoving from Guatemala and The once critically gnarledbound,sheadded,includeies out of Colombia plus UPSgolden-yellowaircraftflyaPanama City to the U.S., Con-global supply chain is smooth- Avianca and Atlas widebod- and LATAM jets. largenetworkofperishablestanza Gantes, a DHL spokes-ing out somewhat and the per- Currently, the cherry seasoncargorouteslinkingLatinpersonbasedinSantiago, ishablecargoesthatswitchedisdominatingotherperish- America to the world. Chile, told the American Jour-from ocean vessels to air freightable commodities and exportNimbleDHL,forexam- nal of Transportation (AJOT).are returning to sea transport. space to the U.S. The seasonple, with no passenger loadsItisdifficulttokeepup Thatstheassessmentoffor Argentinian cherries endsto limit weight and time, haulswith year round and seasonal ChrisConnell,seniorvicein January, Mora said. Thenorthboundavarietyofper- perishable growing, harvesting, president of perishables-Northonly steady year round com- ishablecommoditiesfromand shipping because of over-America, for Kuehne + Nagelsmodity we have is okra. San Jose, Costa Rica, includ- lap.Pineapplesandflowers subsidiaryCommodityFor- HPLApollo,whichhasing wild fish, farm fish, Tila- are year round present, but they warders,Inc.,LosAngeles- 60,000squarefeetofperish- pia (yet another breed of fish),havespecialpeakseasons, basedlargeforwarderofable storage facilities in Miamifreshandtropicalflowers,addsGantes.Importersand time-sensitiveproductsglob- pluscoolandrefrigerationpineapples, ornamental plantsshippers have to stay nimble,ally. Space demands are slowlyterminals in Los Angeles andyear-roundandaseasonalDHLexportspineapples returning to pre-pandemic levelsSan Francisco, is also carryingexotic plant called Rambutam. from Latin America to Europe in many trade lanes.Pamela Mora, branch manager of(PIVOTcontinued onFromHonduras,Tilapianduring the end of November Starting 18 months ago,HPL Apollo page 10) andokraareshippedyear(KEYcontinued on page 34)we had major delays at sea-ports,laborshortages,long lines,truckingdifficulties anditwaschaosforocean carriers.Growers,packers andshippersofperishable itemshadnochoicethan toputmoretrafficintoair freight,Connellrecalledin an interview with the Ameri-canJournalofTransporta- Raising Expectationstion (AJOT).Then the industry started seeing in the summer a heavy pivotfromairfreightbackDelivering Resultsto sea freight as ocean termi-nalsbecamelesscongested andsailingschedulesmore reliable, he added.Connell said air cargo belly operators had their labor issues as well, with shortages of ground handling staff but that situation was more compounded with 100% dedicated to our customer sea freight operators than airsatisfactioncargo.a siana irc apacityn otTransporting more than 286 million back top re -p andeMic lbs of perishable cargo annually. Meantime, he said, there Customizable cold-chain solutions arestilllessaircraftpas-senger and freightersgoing Dedicated 40,000 sq. ft. (3,700 m) into Asia than during the pre- perishable handling center pandemic.Wehadhoped to see that air space capacity +2C to +8Cequalize itself in the summer of2023butwiththestrong +15C to +25 CU.S. dollar being a wild card Established worldwide network in global trade, we will just need to wait and see how the supplyanddemandofboth passengertravelthatputs morecargocapacityinthe air and peak perishable cargo demand, matches up.PamelaMora,branch managerofHPLApollo,a Miami-basedallperishables forwarder,saidairfreight rates are going down, capac-ity is expanding, and staffers have been hired. Its not like the situation we had before.arePerishablecommodities+305.407.3125 [email protected] moving northbound fromLatinAmericatothe U.S, she said, including ber- www.amerijet.comriesoutofChile,asparagus from Peru and bananas from CostaRicatonameafew. Majorwidebodiedcarriers movingperishablesnorth-'