UK’s Nationwide Produce goes green with transformational expansion in Evesham

Nationwide Produce has been in business for nearly 50 years, helping both supply and serve customers through fresh fruit and vegetable growing, packing, shipping and much more. In fact, it prides itself on this tagline: “We do just about everything in fresh produce.” Known previously as Bernard O’Malley & Sons and operating out of Lancashire, […]

Shipping containers around a fifth less productive than pre-Covid

Antwerp port access blocked as ship runs aground

Congestion across global supply chains has meant shipping containers are an estimated 15% to 20% less productive than in pre-Covid-19 times, according to Drewry’s recently published Container Census & Leasing Annual Review & Forecast 2022/23 report. Drewry estimates that each container averaged 18.1 lifts in 2021 compared with 19.2 in 2020 and between 19.5 and 20.6 in […]

In U.S., transportation and produce supply chain also remain uncertain

Paul Revere was worried only about Land and Sea. Today, our transportation troubles include Air as well. Current transportation and supply chain woes are testing the resiliency so frequently attributed to the produce industry. For many of us, the increased cost of sea and air transportation is easily measured in the number of air pallets […]

Despite soaring profits, Maersk sees economic risks coming this year

New initiatives keep Maersk Line at forefront of global transport service

Danish shipping group AP Møller-Maersk anticipates “a slowdown in the second half, a normalization”, according to its chief executive Søren Skou and in a report in The Financial Times. This comes despite the highest profits of $19.3 billion (+55%) made in its 114-year history, in the first quarter. “The visibility is quite low. Mainly we see risks […]

How do consumers value produce and local vs. long-distance?

First British-grown strawberries of the season hit shelves at Aldi stores

A new researcher at the New York Produce Show, Rebecca Wasserman-Olin, shared new research findings about how customers value various appearance characteristics and how a consumer value perception is affected when a strawberry is marketed as ‘local,’ among other key findings. While this work uses strawberries as an example, it provides important lessons for everyone in the fresh produce […]

First freight shipment to arrive on ‘Brexit buster’ Morocco to UK route

The Port of Poole in Dorset is expecting its first delivery via a new direct shipping route from Tangier in Morocco, which was established by United Seaways. A shipment of 100 freights of organic seasonal fruit and vegetables is shortly scheduled northbound while the route will run once per week and largely comprise dry and […]

Where in the world is my container?

The global produce industry is a fascinating and entirely unique business model, with arguably one of the most delicate operational chains that spans global markets and meticulously juggles countless daily moving pieces. The industry is also no stranger to incident response, troubleshooting, and navigating large-scale challenges whether weather-related, a hiring or labor challenge, government policy […]