"After returning to its original base on 27 March 2021, the container destined to Taiwan, which left our warehouse in Baruchella Rovigo on 10 December 2020, had the incredible surprise of revealing to us that the quality of the kiwifruit shipped was 99% the same as at the time of departure," said Adelino Cordioli of Adfruit.
"After a 40-day journey to Taiwan, the container was rejected by the Taiwanese authorities due to the presence of 0.01 ppm (probable drift effect) of Etofenprox. It should be noted that, in the last seven years of exporting kiwis to that destination, we have never encountered any problem.
The use of Etofenprox, which is authorized with very high values on other fruits in Taiwan, is unfortunately not tolerated even as a trace on kiwis. We tried to explain to Taiwanese authorities that it was probably a drift effect, given the infinitesimal value detected by the tests, but nothing could be done. It is used in Italy as a measure to combat the Asian bug in case of emergency and is authorized with a limit of 1.00 ppm."
"We also promptly informed CSO Italy, which took immediate action, and although there was no chance to change the situation, I want to emphasize and publicly express my appreciation to the CSO, especially to Simona Rubbi, for the great professionalism provided to our misfortune, by promptly using all possible diplomatic channels".
"Having considered all possible options and noting the impossibility of entering the territory of Taiwan, we decided to return home our container, worth almost 50,000 dollars, which contained 70% of high caliber and premium quality kiwis. As if that wasn't enough, the proximity of the Chinese New Year made us lose more days, namely a delay of further 20 days, in addition to other 40 days of travel back to Italy and finally reaching our warehouse after 3 months and a half, with a total transit time of 107 days".
"The logistics was handled by the company DCS Tramaco, to whom we would like to express our appreciation and gratitude for arranging all the phases of the re-entry and the documents so professionally and efficiently", continued Cordioli.
"When we reopened the container, we were both amazed and incredulous to see what condition the goods were in, and how the products maintained their hardness and healthy quality after being in the container for an exceptionally long time. Ninety-nine percent of the maximum fruit hardness was of at least 3 kg pressure and only 1% of the fruit had slight wilting and/or softness. As you can see from the photos, the goods passed this endless journey without any decay, showing on the contrary a quality standard still very high".
"I would like to point out that we did not carry out any post-harvest treatment, using only refrigeration as a preservative and, of course, our great Italian quality standards (in this specific case, the kiwi was from Verona). Therefore, I would like to thank all the companies that produce high quality Italian packaging, in this specific case DS Smith Packaging of Lana (BZ), for giving us the opportunity to travel long distances with a strong seal, since showing up with the right packaging is of great importance".
"Although perhaps in recent times we have lost in price competitiveness compared to other European producers, when it comes to the quality of production and the entire supply chain, including logistics, we are second to none"
"In order to avoid that this unpleasant inconvenience can be repeated in the future, to the detriment of our excellence, the CSO has already activated measures on setting the import tolerance. It will take some time to obtain it, but in the meanwhile the necessary documentation is underway. For those of you who would like additional facts or a testimony from the delivery operator who is willing to provide the truthfulness about what was found at the unloading, please contact us."
For more information:
Adfruit 
Cordioli Adelino
Via Scavazza 957-65
45020 - Giacciano con Baruchella
Rovigo - Italy
www.adfruit.it
+39 0425 50429