“Asia a growing sales market for fruit and vegetables”

“Ever since the Russian boycott of European products, we’ve seen larger and larger amounts of fruits and vegetables shipping towards Asia. This is particularly evident in the apples and pears that are now sent to Asia instead of to Russia,” says Danny de Bruyn of Cosco Shipping. “I think trade with Asia will only increase in the next few years. It’s a strong market that still has a lot of potential. We’ve seen that the Asian market is becoming more important to Europe, but also to other regions.”

Cosco Shipping is a Chinese shipping company with Asia as its core business. The shipping company is the third largest shipping company in the world. Their head office is in Shanghai, and they have local offices all over the world. “Cosco Shipping is active on 300 trade routes and calls at 240 different ports globally. Recently, Cosco Shipping acquired OOCL from Hong Kong. We’re the fastest growing shipping company in the world now, and that’s largely due to Asia as a strong market.The most important trade routes are Asia-Europe, Asia-US and ‘Trans-Pacific,’” Danny says.

Right now, reefers have a share of four per cent of the business of Cosco Shipping. The remaining share is made up of dry containers. “The share of reefers, however, is growing quickly. We’re number four regarding reefers, but our ambition is to grow in this segment in the short term,” Danny says. The developments in reefer transport include, among other things, more specialisation in fruit and vegetables. New techniques are constantly being used to gain more control over the product. “Goods have to be transported in perfect condition, and that’s why we use GPS techniques, among other things, to control the climate in reefers.”

“We’re still growing in Asia, but we’re also growing quickly in South America, Europe and Africa,” Danny says. Yet there are definitely threats on the market that could hinder this growth. “The trade war between China and Trump is a potential threat. We’re also affected by the high bunker prices. We’re trying to compensate by having EBS charges on the cargo, for example. Besides, the market for containers hasn’t been great in recent years. The tariffs for containers are still low, particularly when sailing to Asia.”