Flowers, fruits and vegetables volumes may fall as customers shift from scheduled freighters to charter services and belly flights, Lufthansa Cargo head of operations Fresh/td and cross functions, Oliver Blum tells Air Cargo Week.
Blum says: “On the routes from Ecuador and Columbia, we have recently shifted from scheduled freighters services to our network on demand charter service, and to interline partners and passenger flights.
“Thus, we might see a decrease in tonnage of flowers, fruits and vegetables. For the berry and cherry business from Chile, Argentina and Mexico we are again expecting an increase in fall.”
Some areas of the world are still doing well, particularly berries from Argentina, Chile and Mexico, strawberries from Egypt and various fruits from Brazil.
To meet customers’ perishable needs, Lufthansa Cargo uses its Fresh/td product, giving a temperature controlled environment during flight and storage, as well as specially trained personnel to ensure quality, as well as using the Perishable Center Frankfurt (pictured above), with features including vacuum cooling.
Blum comments: “Our worldwide logistics network offers fast flight connections to some 300 destinations in more than 100 countries. Our customers benefit from our very long experience in handling special cargo and our recognised expertise in the area of perishables.”
Lufthansa Cargo is part of the Air Cargo Community Frankfurt and its working group, Perishable Professionals, is aiming to make Frankfurt Europe’s perishable import hub.
Blum says: “We want to further speed up the processes in Frankfurt either during transit or for import shipments. Furthermore, together with our partners we are further improving our Fresh/td To-Door Services to reach a seamless supply chain, which is safe and transparent.”
