Worldwide Cargo Logistics to open vacuum cooled facility in Miami
Floral Daily: Fri 8 Jan 2016
Pedro Utreras, Worldwide Cargo Logistics & Cargo Logistics Group:
Vacuum cooling
First facility in Miami with vacuum cooling systems
Worldwide Cargo Logistics & Cargo Logistics Group are continuously investing in their cold chain and will take their next major step in a couple of months; they will move to a new facility in Miami. This new facility has a cold chain with state of the art equipment which will considerably extend the shelf life of the flowers. The new facility, which is situated next to the Miami airport at 3200 NW 67 Ave, Suite 340, Miami FL 33122, is brand new and has an 28,000 sqft sized cooling area, 14 loading docks and 2 vacuum cooling systems. According to Utreras, this is quite revolutionary. "In Europe, the use of vacuum cooling systems is a common practice, but here in Miami, it is something new. We are the first company that owns two of these systems, which can reduce the temperature of 3,500 kilos to 2 degrees Celcius in 25 minutes. The major advantage of these systems is the fact that we can extend the shelf life of flowers, with 1.5 days on average," says Utreras.
Faster routes
Next to investing in the cold chain, Worldwide Cargo Logistics & Cargo Logistics Group are always working to find the fastest routes to deliver the freshest flowers to existing, but also to new markets. "In 2000, when the company was established, we mainly shipped flowers from Quito, Ecuador to the USA. At that time, the USA was our main market. However, over the years, Russia, Asia and the Middle East became increasingly important markets for South American growers. Therefore, we started to ship flowers from South America to Amsterdam by air and from there on in cooled trucks to Russia, which takes around one week. Later we could also ship the flowers faster, from Miami directly to Moscow, which only takes three days. Currently, as more South American growers have customers in Europe, we are working on finding faster routes to deliver flowers from South America through the US to Europe. On the Middle East and Asia market we have developed a faster and more reliable operation through our Miami and Los Angeles stations. As a Certify Bonded Carrier and TSA approved company we are allowed to transfer shipments to the out going airline once we precool them and the new facilities will be faster with the vacuum chambers," says Utreras.
Worldwide Cargo Logistics
Worldwide Cargo Logistics is specialized in the transportation of flowers and other perishables and owns operations in Ecuador (Quito), Colombia, (Bogota and Medellin) and USA (Miami and Los Angeles). They have major control of their cooperation as no third parties are being used. "We take care of everything, from when the flowers leave the farm till they arrive at the customer. It enables us to adjust our service and logistics based on our clients needs. During transport, the flowers are being handled with great care as our professional staff is qualified and trained with more than ten years of expertise on cargo handling. Moreover, we also offer our clients a software where they can track their inventory," says Utreras.