Crowley and its subsidiary Customized Brokers , in cooperation with Miami International Airport (MIA), have facilitated Florida’s first-ever ocean-to-air perishables transshipment from Guatemala to Amsterdam.
The first transshipment included nearly 10 tons of snow peas from Guatemala. The refrigerated cargo arrived in Port Everglades, Fla., aboard Crowley’s cargo ship Tucana J, was trucked to MIA, then departed for Amsterdam via Centurion Cargo.
Crowley, Customized Brokers and MIA were instrumental in helping to implement this new perishables shipping program with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP). Crowley and Customized Brokers can now coordinate and transport ocean shipments of produce from Central America to Port Everglades and then transport them to MIA, where they will depart by air to destinations in Europe and Asia.
Last year, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) approved the program’s permit, and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agreed to expedite processing of the ocean shipments before their air departures. The ocean-to-air program will save both time and money for cargo shippers, who will receive expedited air transport for perishable products without paying CBP duties, since the cargo travels in-bond. The program also allows European and Asian households to receive Latin America produce at the peak of freshness, extending in some cases the seasonality for certain products.