London, 25.07.2012. Brent Larson, standards officer of the International Plant Protection Convention Secretariat (IPPC) and Vicky Lefevre, director of the Food Center are two of the latest additions to the growing speaker list at the 4th annual Cool Logistics Global conference, taking place 24-26 September in Antwerp, Belgium.
Aimed at minimizing pest movement by sea containers, the United Nations backed initiative (IPPC) comesunder the wing of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and could affect the future viability of global perishable supply chains.
“Seen in conjunction with the evolving process of largely consumer-driven food safety legislation in Europe and different implementation regimes across EU member states, the IPPC initiative mayraise calls for revisiting current rules governing trade measures regarding food safety, plant and animal health” says Alex von Stempel, Director of Cool Logistics Resources.
Food safety in containers, food hygiene, packaging and consumer health represent new topics to be discussed at this conference, drawing attention from food exporters and importers alike.
Andy Connell, Business Unit Manager, Shipping & Logistics, Dole Foods South Africa, is another new speaker focusing on the need to train up a new generation of perishable supply chain practitioners in orderto minimise current inefficiencies in the perishable supply chain from farm to shelf.
Shippers involved in distributing all kinds of perishable produce from fresh fruit to flowers, dairy, pharmaceutical, to frozen seafood willhave the opportunity to debate issues such as freight, technology, transport and cold storage infrastructure, environment and global competitiveness with all the leading perishable logistics providers, including Maersk, MSC, Hamburg Sud, Hapag Lloyd, Pacific Seaways, Kuehne +Nagel, Damco, food careplus, Hellmann Perishables Worldwide and many others.
Participants at Cool Logistics this year include global players such as UNIVEG, The Fresh Produce Consortium, Abanorte, Brasilfoods, Global Agri System, BFV, Van Rijn, Cross Treetechno-visors.
All of these companies are beginning to recognise that with growing capacity constraints on major trade lanes, fuelled by general economic weakness and austerity measures, perishable logistics is increasingly under threat by non-tariff based trade impediments.
Soaring food prices resulting from the US drought could seriously impact the delicate balance of global supply and demand of food. The current shortage of transport equipment, especially refrigerated containers could be exacerbated by an increasing imbalance of dry boxes.
Shipping companies, air lines, trucking companies, rail operators, equipment lessors, depots and technology providers will be challenged to find new answers to problems that have dogged the logistics industry fordecades. The Cool Logistics Conference will address the issue of whether inefficiency is the cancer of the supply chain?”
Hosted once again by the Port of Antwerp, the 2012 event incorporates a one-day Operations & Technology forum and two-dayBusiness conference, plus two industry networking receptions. For full details including online registration:
www.coollogisticsconference.com
