“Warehouse operator FlexCold… plans to open a cold storage warehouse north of Jacksonville’s Blount Island Marine Terminal around the middle of this year.”
by: Michael Angell, Associate Editor | Feb 16, 2022
Original Article: JOC.com
Fresh and prepared food shippers are increasingly tapping Florida ports to import refrigerated cargoes thanks to the growing variety of distribution options available and the faster service compared with more congested US ports.
Florida ports handled 452,833 TEU in containerized reefer exports and imports in the first 11 months of 2021, according to data from PIERS, a sister company of JOC.com within IHS Markit. The 16 percent year-over-year increase in Florida reefer volumes outpaced overall US reefer growth of 6.5 percent in the same period.
Rick Schiappacasse, director of specialty cargoes for the Jacksonville Port Authority, said cold chain logistics providers are attracted to Florida ports because the disruption and delays experienced at other ports over the last two years would wreak havoc on perishable goods.
“Fresh pineapple can’t sit on a dock for three or four days,” Schiappacasse told JOC.com.
The availability of cold storage warehousing near major Florida ports means reefer cargoes can be deconsolidated quickly for distribution. Retail giant Walmart and grocery chains Publix and Winn-Dixie have warehousing facilities near Jacksonville for quickly distributing imported produce throughout their stores in the US Southeast, Schiappacasse noted.
“From Jacksonville, it can get into distribution center in less than a day,” he said. Jacksonville handled a total of 111,442 TEU of reefer cargo in January–November 2021, an 8.4 percent increase from a year earlier.
Raul Alfonso, chief commercial officer for the Port of Tampa Bay, said in a statement that Florida ports are well-suited to handling reefer cargoes thanks to the 400 million square feet of warehousing and distribution space along the Interstate-4 corridor that traverses the middle of the state.
Thanks to the corridor’s proximity to several ports, port truckers are able to make multiple trips to retrieve and drop off containers in a single day. Produce shippers can also take advantage of competitive northbound trucking rates to reach grocery and retail customers throughout the Southeast.
“As Florida’s population continues to quickly grow, Port Tampa Bay is ready to meet the demand for perishable goods and refrigerated cargo,” Alfonso said. “Our port, along with our partners and service providers, feel confident we will be in position to serve our market region with the best logistics and distribution options.”
Reefer volumes through Tampa Bay jumped 171.2 percent to 4,590 TEU, by far the fastest percentage growth rate among Florida ports, while shipments through neighboring Port Manatee rose 92.3 percent to last year 43,840 TEU. The busiest ports, though, naturally saw the largest volume gains.
Port Everglades’ reefer volumes reached 144,375 TEU between January and November, a 6.6 percent increase over the year-earlier period. The Port of Miami handled 111,114 TEU in laden reefer containers over the same period, a 19 percent increase from 2020.
Being among the closest US ports to Central and South America also helps keep Florida in pole position for refrigerated cargoes, Alfonso said, adding that additional north-south container services have debuted over the past year to offer more options to produce shippers.
Reefer specialist Seatrade, for example, commenced a weekly service into Tampa last year from Costa Rica. Alfonso said food distributors Bounty Global and Tampa Juice have been using the service to bring pineapples through the port, and Dole’s dedicated refrigerated fleet has also started using Tampa for imports from Central America.
Searching for storage
With more options to bring in refrigerated goods, Florida’s cold storage businesses are on the hunt for real estate near ports.
Warehouse operator FlexCold, for example, plans to open a cold storage warehouse north of Jacksonville’s Blount Island Marine Terminal around the middle of this year. Along with handling frozen imports, the warehouse will be able to flash freeze poultry and beef for export after inspection, Schiappacasse said.
Once completed, the FlexCold facility will give poultry shippers in northern Florida and southern Georgia more choices for export gateways, he said.
The Port of Savannah handles about one-third of US poultry exports, but the port last fall was forced to slow vessel unloading due to an excess of long-dwelling import containers at the Garden City Terminal. Those types of delays pose a much greater risk to reefer cargoes than dry goods, Schiappacasse said.
“We’ve had a lot of interest in [the FlexCold] facility for exporters that are looking to bypass other ports,” Schiappacasse said.
Food supply chain specialist Axionlog opened refrigerated and dry storage warehouse near Blount Island last year that will serve as a staging point for exporting food and other goods to South American fast food chains, Schiappacasse said.
Schiappacasse said that the ability of a port to handle other types of ships is also attracting shippers to route their refrigerated goods.
Jacksonville’s Seaonus Stevedoring, which operates a breakbulk terminal at the port, has handled palletized frozen poultry for export to the Caribbean. The pallets are kept on top of deck hatch doors, which have also been chilled to keep the cargo cold, Schiappacasse said.
Breakbulk ships have also been employed to bring in pallets of canned foods that would typically be containerized, he said. Chiquita has also been using breakbulk ships, along with containers, to bring bananas into Tampa Bay.
“Shippers that find the value of their goods doesn’t warrant the high rates for refrigerated ocean container are looking at other ways to get their goods to market,” Schiappacasse said.
Contact Michael Angell at michael.angell@ihsmarkit.com and follow him on Twitter: @michael_angell.