Source: World Cargo News
Maritime Transportation of Food
To be honest, now that I'm starting to deal with this issue, I know little or nothing about it. This circumstance also makes it interesting for me to find out more about the topic of "Maritime food transportation".
When transporting food, I think that this type of transport is the most sustainable. But you can not deny it when shipping food, that also here the environment is charged.
The transport chain, I think, is structured as follows:
- The product is picked up on the plantation with a truck.
- Afterwards the loading takes place in a container.
- The container is loaded on the ship in succession.
- After the passage by ship, the unloading of the containers takes place in another country.
- The containers are then transported by truck to a larger distribution center.
- There, the further fine distribution takes place in smaller trucks.
- The last step is the delivery to the shops.
The sustainability of Maritime Transportation of Food:
I assume that the transportation of tropical food is most sustainable by ship. A ship can load large quantities and is, depending on the route, realtivly fast at its destination. I think it's important to have lorries ready at the destination at the right time to send the food to distribution centers as fast as possible.
Challenges when shipping food
I believe that the biggest challenge in shipping tropical fruits like bananas, pineapples or avocados is, that they do not ripen during transport. I think, that good planning is important, so that the fruits have the right degree of maturity as soon as they are in the shops.
I am curious to learn more about the Maritime transport of food through our project. I'm sure there are new insights that I did not know yet.
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Jeannine Herren, BM2 TZ19