b'36American Journal ofTransportation ajot.com(SPURTcontinued fromin general, the cold chain has page 34) beendisruptedbyanumber muchmorenuanced,Meatofdisparateevents.Politi-andseafoodcommoditiescally the Ukraine-Russia war arecertainlyonlynotmuchhascertainlycauseddisrup-better than some of the othertions in Europe but as Tuthill fruit and perishable markets.pointsout,thesewererela-Specifically,bananashavetively minor in relations to the had a real tough market, butentiretyofperishablemove-thatsstartingtoimprove.ments,TheUkraineimpact Someofthefruitmarketswasveryminimalbasedon have been impacted by somethe percentage [of the market]. of the climate change, includ- But I think some of the relay ingElNinoandflooding.ports like Rotterdam, they had Highfertilizercostshavesome impact like congestion. impacted some of the farmersSo,congestionwasprob-from just an economic stand- ablymoretheproblemthan point where thats proving toanything else in trying to get be financially challenging forreefer cargo out of Rotterdam them. So, its kind of a mixedand moving. So, velocity wassee the restriction having muchnot going to cut high value,tingencies based on some of outlook, but still positive. moreofanimpactthantheimpactontheoverallmove- highperishable,time-sen- theunplannedshortagesof Overall, Tuthill aligns withactual market tied to Russia,ments of reefer cargo althoughsitivetypecargo,whichisperishables.theDrewryassessmentthatUkraine and some of the otherit does speak to the larger issuethereefercategory.ButtheHowever,otherissues the growth rate should be inareasimpactedbythewar,of climate.question ties into other pointslike the evolving perishables the 2 1/2% to maybe closerTuthill said.Tuthill says Reefer alwaysand that as climate change ismarket in China have had a to 3% range with a strongerAnother problem for box- getsapriorityandknow- impactingsourcingoptionsmuch greater impact on reefer second half of the year. ships has been the water restric- ing that its 10% of the totalfor those who are procuringmovements.Tuthillsaidof tions imposed on Panama Canalload out it probably wont seeperishables to the extent that(SPURTcontinued on s easonaliTy and transits. Again, Tuthill doesnttoomuchimpactyouretheyrehavingtohavecon- page 37)S eaSonalityTraditionallycontainer-ship rotations have rhythm or seasonalitya peak season thatsomeboxshippun-dits postulate has evaporated in the post-COVID shipping cycles. But in the reefer busi-ness seasonality is an impor-tant,evencriticalfactorin shipping. Theres less flex-ibility with obviously perish-able commodities than there is with dry cargo retail type products,especiallyonthe apparel side. You cant store perishables for too long before that particular inventory goes bad, so the traditional season-ality of the reefer market will most likely continue the way it has in the past just because youcantreallygetaround that,Tuthillremarkedon seasonalityinthereefer sector.Ofcourse,thereisa cold storage factor to be con-sideredinthemovementof perishables and Tuthill notes, onthecoldchainmarket someofthefrozenmarkets you can get away with ship-ping inventory and storing it. So, that could go ahead and make a little bit of a differ-ence where you can go ahead andstarttohaveinventory cycles that are maybe a little different going forward. But evenwiththat,theseafood markets and including some ofthefishfarmingmarkets withthemeats,thefrozen poultry,[and]thingslike that,Ithinkthatwillmain-tainitscycles.AndIdont think youll see too much of ashift.Thebigthingwith the dry market, which is dif-ferent than the reefer market, istheresleftoverinventory that is basically being stored that can go a full cycle all the way into the next year and be restockedforholidaysthat were intended for the previ-ous year.d isrupTions , d islocaTionsandm arkeTsAs with the supply chain'