Reefer Container Market Volume is Growing

Demand for shipping fresh food by sea is twice as high as for other products, Delurie Shipping analysts have found.

Reefers, or refrigerated containers, can keep food fresh for up to a month or more, facilitating distributors' ability to ship fresh products like orange juice and lobster around the world. In the past, only large banana dealers like Chiquita Brands International have been able to pay for large refrigerated bays on cargo ships, purchasing space to transport bananas.

In addition, the increasing wealth of populations around the world, particularly in Asia, has fueled demand for higher-value foods. For the growing middle class, basic foods such as rice are no longer enough to satisfy their needs. They need more fruits, vegetables, and fresh meats, which will facilitate the entire industry to transport more products that require refrigerated management.

Reefer containers account for 7% of total container volume, but demand has been increasing at an average annual growth rate of 5%-6% over the past five years, significantly higher than the 2%-3% growth rate for regular containers.

Including reefer containers, the value of goods shipped via containers is up to $4 trillion annually.

Stijn Rubens, senior consultant of Delury Supply Chain, said that the transportation of fresh products is steadily growing, but orange juice, pharmaceuticals, confectionery and other products with certain requirements for freshness are also supporting the market demand.

In the winter, fresh produce from South America, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand is shipped to the northern ball to meet the demand of the northern ball. The United States and Canada also export vegetables, meat, seafood, citrus and other fruits to Asia.

Anne-Sophie ZerlangKarlsen, Maersk's head of refrigerated management, said, "Ten years ago, in Denmark, strawberries were only available for three months of the year, but now, they are available all year round, and that's thanks to refrigerated containers and the players, large and small, in the entire supply chain."

Peruvian fruit merchant Sun Fruits Packs SA ships 700 cases of grapes to Philadelphia and 220 cases of avocados to Spain and the Netherlands each year. reefer containers are critical to our business, says Walter Munoz, a Sun Fruits executive. The price of shipping one container of fruit to Europe and the United States is as much as 50 percent higher than selling directly to the local market in South America. It takes 18 days to transport grapes from Peru to Philadelphia, during which time the grapes are "dormant" and the ripening process is slowed by controlled temperatures and other conditions.

In the late 1990s, bulk carriers began transporting fresh produce, but at that time they were largely limited to bananas. Large fruit merchants like Chiquita Brands International could afford to transport, while smaller producers had to focus on local markets because they could not afford the high transportation costs.

Chiquita Brands International has gradually scaled back its "white fleet" (ships painted white to prevent bananas from absorbing too much heat) in favor of refrigerated containers. Earlier this year, Ginger chartered a number of container ships and ordered 2,500 reefers from Maersk. The reefers monitor the temperature conditions inside and control carbon dioxide, oxygen and nitrogen to prevent premature ripening of the fruit. Shippers can track their shipments in real time via satellite tracking.

Tim Clarke, vice president of global sales for Vanguard, a U.S. fruit marketer, said, "Reefer shipping allows us to have consistency throughout the year, as we used to charter three ships to ship apples from Washington, D.C., in December and January. These include apples, pears, cherries, citrus, etc.

In addition to ensuring that fresh produce can be shipped around the world, reefer shipping allows shippers to enjoy lower shipping prices.

Shipping companies are further expanding their business by capturing the airfreight market. Ms. Karlsen from Maersk, for example, said, "In the future, there is also great potential for the transportation of flowers such as roses, and we are currently looking at ways to extend their flowering period." 

In addition, CMA CGM is experimenting with live lobster shipments, although the scale of lobster shipments from Canada to Europe via refrigerated containers is relatively small. Currently, only 1 percent of live lobsters are shipped via refrigerated transport. 

In refrigerated lobster shipments, a filtration system is used to simulate the temperature of the ocean, oxygen levels and the quality of the water. In such shipments, shipping companies charge the same ocean freight as they do for air freight, but ensure zero lobster mortality. In addition, lobsters shipped by air often produce ammonia, which can affect the taste to some extent.

On February 7 this year, CMA CGM released news that containers can be used to transport liquid products such as juice, milk, syrup and jam. The world's first technology is called "Reeflex", by the liquid into a special recyclable bag, and then transported via 40-foot refrigerated containers. The container can hold 12,000-24,000 liters of liquid and can be filled and exported in 35 minutes via an internal suction system, while the container can be securely placed in the container in just 3 minutes. After filling the Reeflex, the liquid is in a completely sterile state and the temperature can be precisely regulated between -35°C and 20°C, so that the nutritional and chemical properties of the product are well preserved.