The trials were carried out by CCA’s partner, the Perishable Products Export Control Board (PPECB) monitoring exports from South Africa to Europe, which highlighted the impact of temperature excursions on vase life.
They were conducted in collaboration with Arnelia Farms, a South African wholesale flower nursery and exporter, and tracked Sunshine Conebush flower consignments packed on-farm near Hopefield, Western Cape and travelling to the Netherlands and Germany.
Vijan Chetty, CCA Board Member and General Manager of PPECB says trials have focused on the final mile, saying, “We will be looking at farm to table or vase across a trade lane, and not only focusing on monitoring the temperature of the product, but also aiming to identify all areas where shelf life could be influenced, including, for example, post-harvest practices, packaging and palletisation, and the functionality of cold storage.”
The CCA will review the research trials, analysing the activities of stakeholders within the value chain and identifying possible risk areas in order to draft a best practice handling procedure.
Chetty says, “The handling procedure can be used to train staff to mitigate risks and increase the vase life of flowers and the shelf life of other perishables.”
The PPECB pilot trial used air temperature loggers on 2 consignments sent 2 days apart to monitor variations in cold chain conditions.
Flower consignments were packed in boxes and palletised on-farm, then loaded on a refrigerated truck before taking a 2 hour journey to the courier service provider.
The mean temperatures reached 10.4C and 9.3C, considerably higher than the recommended 5C for cut flowers and though they arrived in acceptable condition, vase life was affected by the temperature excursion.
PPECB will undertake trials for other perishable items and comparing air versus sea freight.
Stavros Evangelakakis, Chair of CCA and Head of Global Healthcare at Cargolux, says, “CCA members are focused on collaborating to find tangible ways of improving the quality of the temperature-controlled supply chain. By working with the PPECB on the results of their trials, we can go one step further in helping the industry to reduce perishables waste.”