North America Edition
As the supply bottlenecks at ports are still in place, South Korean food retailers are shifting to air freight to get fruits and other products delivered from abroad. The shortage of labor in ports has been delaying international shipments. It used to take three to four weeks on average to ship fruits from South and North America, but it now takes six to seven weeks. Fruit sometimes overripens or rots during the long trip. That is why many discount marts have turned to faster air-freight transport.
Emart transported 40 percent of its foreign fruits by air this year as of Wednesday, compared to less than 15 percent last year. It gets 12 tons of California grapes delivered by plane every week. Chilean cherries are also delivered by plane. Chilean blueberries took more than 40 days on ship, but now take only four.
Source: hellenicshippingnews.com
Photo source: Dreamstime.com
