Produce shippers prepare best practice charter for transport
The Global Coalition of Fresh Produce (GCFP), an alliance of produce shippers, wants to raise resilience and transparency in logistics through a charter of best practices, to be tabled next month.
Its members are worried about reliability issues that pose an existential threat to their business.
According to the GCFP, the Charter of Good Shipping Practices is meant to be a shared foundational framework for industry stakeholders that "aims to foster mutual understanding and collaboration, strengthening partnerships, and enhancing efficiency across the supply chain".
The biggest impetus for this has been concern over schedule reliability in ocean transport, noted Greg Palmer, chair of the coalition and VP of trade and market development at the Canadian Produce Marketing Association, one of the GCFP's founding members.
He stressed that the initiative was not about pointing fingers; the aim would be to foster more collaboration in order to strengthen logistics through transparency and fairness.
The charter is built around five core pillars:
* collaboration and communication, which aims to improve transparency and timely data sharing;
* fair and transparent business terms with greater transparency, while avoiding opaque pricing and vague contract terms;
* competition and efficiency to support a reliable and cost-effective shipping environment;
* cargo integrity and product quality, supported by optimal handling to preserve freshness and value;
* resilience and risk preparedness to enhance supply chain stability through proactive planning and co-ordinated response.
While visibility - a key criterion - has improved exponentially in recent years, said Mr Palmer, there was still "a large runway for it to grow", especially when it comes to real-time tracking to the final customer.
The coalition would like to see ports prioritise fresh products, due to their perishable nature, which is getting impetus from a growing desire in Asia for more frequent shipments, noted Mr Palmer.
Some gateways have made significant improvements in operations, he said, citing efforts by Amsterdam and Antwerp to automate loading and unloading processes. Peru's Chancay has also made a big difference by cutting transit times to China by a number of days, he added.
Owing to the fact that the majority of GCFP members' cargo moves by ocean transport, the focus of the work on the charter has been primarily on this sector, but it is not limited to the maritime side, he noted.
"There are pain points in any form of transport, particularly in air cargo," he said. But rail and truck modes have been less of a focus, as major issues there are usually addressed at the regional level.
The charter has been in the works for more than two years. It began as regional initiatives by members of the coalition to address reliability issues in maritime transport, which led to the conclusion that it would be best to develop a set of best practices and standards that apply around the globe.
The recent surge in transport costs has added a sense of urgency to the initiative.
A recent survey of coalition members identified shipping, fuel, and fertiliser as the largest drivers of business expenditure over the past year. About two-thirds of respondents indicated that their business was "at risk", a threat that is increasing, as shipping costs could rise further as a result of the conflict in the Middle East.
