Consumers want more fruits and vegetables in their diets but produce shippers must face these common logistics challenges to keep up with their demand.

It’s hard to deny the nutritional value fruits and vegetables bring to our diets. It’s likely why there’s been substantial growth in consumer demand for produce over the past decade. While that’s great for businesses based in produce, there’s also greater pressure for produce shippers to deliver.

The journey from farm to table can be surprisingly complex for fruits and vegetables. Produce shippers face several hurdles that they need to overcome for their products to deliver fresh and meet the growing consumer demand. Let’s explore the intricacies of these difficulties and how they all can be taken care of by working with a third-party logistics (3PL) provider, like Trinity Logistics. 

CHALLENGE 1: CHOOSING BEST TRANSPORTATION MODE

Produce shippers first face the challenge of determining what transportation mode to use for their shipments. With produce, half of its shelf life is spent in transit. It’s also reported that roughly 33 percent of produce is lost or wasted during its journey, according to the Logistics Bureau.

This is why produce shippers must ask themselves these questions to help determine the right transportation mode for their shipment.

What’s best for your product?

What can you afford?

How much time does your produce have?

Air is great for foods that have a very short shelf life and may need expedited shipping. However, air is often the most expensive of your options. Rail can offer you cost savings but requires more travel time, often two to three days. This option is often saved for produce with a longer shelf life. Lastly, there’s truckload shipping, which offers several shipping options and costs, depending on factors like whether you need a full truck, expedited shipping, or freight consolidation.

CHALLENGE 2: SELECTING THE RIGHT CARRIER PARTNER

The next challenge produce shippers need to tackle is choosing the right carrier to pick up and deliver their shipment. This may be the most crucial task of all because the carrier you choose can make or break your shipment. You need to trust the carrier you choose has experience in handling your specific cargo and meeting food safety regulations, especially for those that need temperature control.

CHALLENGE 3: MAINTAINING FRESHNESS/QUALITY

Maintaining freshness is one of the primary logistics challenges for produce shippers. Millions of dollars are wasted each year on produce that didn’t maintain freshness by delivery.

Produce begins to deteriorate the moment it’s harvested, so the risk of decomposition is equal to, or perhaps even greater, to produce shippers than those of theft or delay. Fresh or frozen produce needs to be stored and transported at specific temperatures to ensure its quality when bought and eaten by the consumer. Even the amount of humidity, light, or kind of packaging can affect a produce product, so produce shippers face this challenge in every segment of their shipping.

Every kind of produce also has different needs. Some need very specific environments to maintain freshness. Others can stay at room temperature or take on more handling. Shelf life is also something to consider. Produce with short shelf lives will need quick transit from farm to store. This also means several kinds of produce often can’t ship together. Since there is no one-size-fits-all process for produce, it’s important for produce shippers and their logistics partners to understand what’s needed for the specific product to deliver at peak quality.

CHALLENGE 4: SHIPMENT VISIBILITY

Tracking and shipment visibility is essential for produce shippers to be able to reduce risk. Without a clear look into your shipments, you’re left in the dark and uncertain whether your product will arrive on time or in acceptable condition.

This can challenge more than just produce shippers, but all stakeholders in a company’s supply chain. Miscommunication can happen between retailers and sellers as well, causing miscalculations in capacity planning or undependable forecasts. Real-time visibility and data are absolutely needed for produce shippers to enhance transparency with their business partners and gain more control over their supply chains.

CHALLENGE 5: REGULATIONS

Navigating regulations is a huge challenge for produce shippers. Failure to meet those regulations can lead to severe and often costly consequences. For example, in the U.S., produce shippers must comply with the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA), which entails specific guidelines for food safety.

There are also quality standards and labeling requirements to be met. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has a strict grading system to determine the quality of produce, considering its size, shape, color, and defects.

CHALLENGE 6: HANDLING ANY CLAIMS

There’s always a risk for claims in shipping, but claims can happen more often for produce shippers compared to other industries, due to its shorter shelf life. The majority of claims we see in produce shipping are the result of spoilage, which can happen for many different reasons. 

Handling claims for produce is slightly more difficult due to the Perishable Agricultural Commodities Act (PACA). When handling produce claims, it’s important you and your transportation provider understand and follow PACA. 

HOW TRINITY LOGISTICS HELPS PRODUCE SHIPPERS OVERCOME THEIR CHALLENGES

All those challenges listed above that you may face – we know how and are prepared to handle them.

After 45 years of serving shippers in the food and beverage industry, we’re experts in its logistics requirements and regulations. We also take part in industry organizations, like the International Fresh Produce Association, so we stay knowledgeable about what may affect produce shippers. 

When it comes to choosing your transportation mode, we have a multitude of options available to support you, whether you’re looking for help with one shipment or a fully outsourced logistics solution.

Additionally, we work with trusted carrier relationships that have been fully vetted to ensure your product travels safely and delivers on time. This includes vetting that reefer equipment is not older than 2012 and a temp-reading or download can be made readily available for any refrigerated or frozen produce shipments.

No matter where your freight is in its journey, we provide you with several real-time tracking options to stay fully informed. Through our Managed Transportation service and the use of a transportation management system (TMS), you can find more visibility and data to improve your supply chain processes and communication.

And then there are claims. While we wish every situation could go smoothly, there can still be mishaps. Even so, we’re proud to share that less than one percent of all shipments coordinated with Trinity Logistics end up in a claim. That’s likely because we work with shippers and receivers to monitor load and unload times, checking to ensure trailer doors are not left open, causing temperatures to fluctuate outside of any required ranges.

Now, fear not, because if something does happen, we’re able to help with that too. We have an in-house expert Claims Team to help negotiate any produce claims on your behalf, with an average rate of 60 days in resolving cargo claims.

By working with Trinity Logistics for your produce shipments, you’ll also gain an extra benefit – experiencing our acclaimed People-Centric service. It’s what our customers praise the most about our services and keeps them returning to Trinity Logistics for their logistics needs.

If you’re tired of tackling these produce shipping challenges alone, it may be time to get connected and join the thousands of shippers that choose to make their logistics easy with Trinity Logistics. You won’t be-leaf our exceptional service until you try it!  

Get Out of Your Produce Shipping Pickle

Shipping produce can be a bit tricky. Produce is time-sensitive to make sure consumers at its freshest. Certain produce can be sensitive to pressure, like peaches, that bruise easily. Other produce requires certain temperatures to keep it at its freshest. It’s a juggling act to make sure your produce is at its highest quality when delivered to your customer.

When shipping produce, you need to consider temperature, shelf life, and transit times. Here are three tips to making the process as easy as possible.

Tip #1:

Give as much lead time as you can for orders.

Normally more time means better shipping capacity. Not every truck can haul fresh produce. Refrigerated trucks or reefers are ideal to transport produce because they can adjust and keep temperatures where they need to be for your product. Especially during produce season, the more lead time, the better chance of finding an available reefer at a decent shipping rate.

Tip #2:

Make sure the carrier or transportation partner you select is FSMA (Food Safety Modernization Act) compliant.

Passed in 2011 and implemented in 2017, this regulation focuses on maintaining food safety during transportation. Its goal is to prevent illnesses from contaminated food. If found in violation of FSMA, you can be subjected to large fines and even imprisonment.

Tip #3:

Have detention rules clearly laid out.

Communication is key in your part of shipping produce. In the case of a delay at the farm or pick-up location, drivers can be notified ahead of time, keeping everyone on the same page. This also helps build up your reputation as a shipper of choice, so more quality carriers and transportation partners want to work with you.

Shipping produce is one of Trinity’s specialties. With Burris Logistics as our parent company, we have the warehousing, handling, tracking, and shipping solutions to accommodate you. Shipping produce can be complicated, but it doesn’t have to be. We can help you simplify it.

Check out our Temperature Shipping Guide.

This time of year in the United States, the weather gets a little warmer, people start daydreaming about trips to the beach or vacations to the mountains, and farmers are gearing up for their busiest work season. Not only does produce need to be harvested at peak freshness, it also needs to be shipped; thus the world of fresh produce logistics. When it comes to fresh produce, the most impactful time for any area in the United States is March through June.

With new food safety in transportation regulations, like the Food Safety Modernization Act, and decreased capacity due to supply and demand, finding a reliable carrier who can pick-up and deliver your fresh produce at peak freshness can be time-consuming, and quite frustrating.

The fresh produce logistics team at Trinity Logistics has the resources and industry expertise to arrange your shipment, regardless of how specialized your requirements may be. So if you’re shipping cucumbers, berries, broccoli, apples, or bananas, know that we love coordinating it all.

Produce by Region

The U.S. has different produce harvest times based on region and climate, so we’ll go over some of the top crops and time frames to get an idea of what’s being transported and when.

Texas, Arizona, and New Mexico
The most impactful time for produce harvest in Texas is March to June, but produce can be found here year-round as it is brought over from Mexico. In surrounding states, New Mexico and Arizona, there’s another push for produce that occurs October through November. Some of the top crops you’ll see out of this area include broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, grapefruit, cucumbers, onions, lettuce, pumpkins, and peppers (especially the spicy variety).

California
In California, produce season kicks in around the southern part of the state in March to June, and slowly creeps its way up north of the state, ending in September. Some of the top fresh produde from California during these times include carrots, clementines, nectarines, artichokes, lemons, green leafy vegetables, avocados, and kiwi.

The East Coast
Produce season along the East Coast, like California, starts in the south and slowly creeps its way North. Florida begins its big harvest around May, while the harvest in Maine ends in the fall. From south to north, some of the most popular crops from the East Coast include oranges, peaches, tomatoes, watermelon, corn, cucumbers, apples, cherries, and blueberries.

Shipping Produce

There are a lot of factors that go into making sure fresh produce arrives in the same fresh condition for grocery stores, markets, and restaurants relying on it for their business. Total transit time, proper refrigeration, and shipper’s documents in line with the Food Safety Modernization Act all have to be taken into consideration.

We have 35 plus years of experience arranging refrigerated truckload shipments, so we know that no detail can be left out when it comes to these time-sensitive products. We help arrange produce shipments with dedicated full truckload services, port services, and even supply chain consulting and Transportation Management System solutions. Basically – no matter what scale operation you need, we have a solution that can help.

Our dedicated teams handle the careful transportation of your produce and are available to answer your questions 24/7.