How to Ship Strawberries
Colorado State University says over 94% of U.S. households consume strawberries regularly. This sweet and somewhat sour scarlet fruit is an essential and accessible healthy snack. However, shipping this tasty fruit can be tricky because of its countless storage requirements. Your strawberry shipment could be delayed or ruined without the right logistics partner.
BlueGrace is a trusted and renowned shipment partner for many produce suppliers, offering reefer shipping services for strawberries at competitive rates. With BlueGrace, you can take advantage of our temperature-controlled reefers, ensuring that your strawberries are preserved at the optimal temperature for quality and on-time delivery.
Transport Practices for Strawberries
If you want to know how to ship strawberries correctly, understand that a few best practices are essential to protecting your shipment’s integrity.
The key to a successful strawberry shipment is temperature control, and the outline below shows how critical this is in standard strawberry shipping:
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Loading: Fresh strawberries are first harvested and loaded into the transport container. During this process, it’s crucial to ensure that loaded crates are stacked in a structured layer, leaving enough space for air to circulate yet ensuring the compartments are firmly placed.
Pre-cooling: Before transportation begins, the strawberry crates are cooled in a controlled environment to maintain the optimal temperature. This pre-cooling step is essential in maintaining quality fruit during long transit periods.
Logging: As the produce is loaded in the carrier, it’s also important to log and record their temperature. This allows the handler to monitor and adjust fluctuations, meaning someone is constantly supervising the shipment.
Distribution: Once the product is delivered, consumers or retailers can access it. If the strawberries are delivered to a retail store, they will likely require post-cooling before being displayed on the shelf.
The Problems When Shipping Strawberries
There are a few challenges to consider when shipping strawberries.
The most common potential issues are:
Potential fungal growth: As you know, strawberries are shipped under cold and controlled temperatures. When the temperature fluctuates during transit, it can cause condensation to form inside the container, leading to fungal growth.
Crushed produce: Another problem is that strawberries can easily be destroyed during shipping. This usually happens when crates aren’t stacked properly, or there aren’t adequate spaces for crate movement.
Spoilage: In line with the temperature problem, spoilage occurs when the temperature drops too low or rises too high. If not monitored adequately, the strawberries can rot and become unsafe for consumption.
Reefer Shipping Is the Solution
Shipping strawberries nationally and internationally can be a challenge without the right partner. BlueGrace provides temperature-controlled reefer shipping services tailored to your unique logistics needs, ensuring your shipment is monitored and maintained throughout transit. With our meticulous transportation practices and temperature tracking, you can rest assured that your strawberries will arrive at the destination crisp, fresh, and ready to consume.
Contact us today for a free freight quote and get your strawberry shipment on its way.
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