Freshness Delivered:
Perishable Logistics

Cut flowers and fresh fruit both spoil in transit, but they spoil for different reasons and need different handling. Flowers are kept dormant by cold and humidity: hold them between 2 and 4 degrees Celsius at around 90 percent humidity and the stems stay rigid and the blooms stay closed.

Fruit is kept dormant by atmosphere. Lower the oxygen, raise the carbon dioxide, and respiration slows to the point where ripening effectively stops. UCL Cargo runs both regimes, and the two calculators above show how narrow the safe windows actually are.

The cold chain is only as strong as its weakest handover, so collection, packing, airline acceptance, and clearance are all managed by one team.

• Pre-cooling at origin before the cargo is packed
• Refrigerated collection from farms and pack-houses
• Temperature held at 2 to 4 degrees Celsius for cut flowers
• Controlled Atmosphere gas settings per fruit commodity
• Ethylene scrubbing and fresh air exchange in transit
• Humidity control to prevent stem and skin dehydration
• Phytosanitary certification prepared in-house
• Priority airline cool-chain acceptance, not general cargo

Ripening fruit releases ethylene, and ethylene accelerates the ageing of everything around it. In a sealed container the concentration climbs, blooms open, and fruit that left the farm green arrives soft. It is the single most common cause of a perishable consignment being rejected on arrival.

Catalytic carbon filters scrub ripening gases continuously, and fresh air exchange is set against the commodity rather than left at a default. Higher exchange rates keep ethylene lower but cost more cooling energy, which is the trade-off the emulator above makes visible.

Plant products face inspection regimes that ordinary cargo does not. Most destinations require a phytosanitary certificate issued by the exporting country’s plant protection authority, confirming the consignment is free of regulated pests and diseases.

Because UCL Cargo prepares this alongside the air waybill and commercial invoice, the certificate travels with the cargo rather than following it. For a consignment with a shelf life measured in days, a document delay at the border is a total loss, so the paperwork is verified before departure.

The service is built for growers and traders whose product has a shelf life and a season.

• Flower farms and floriculture exporters
• Mango, citrus, and stone fruit exporters
• Vegetable and salad crop growers
• Importers supplying supermarkets and wholesale markets
• Traders consolidating produce from several farms
• Any shipper whose cargo is graded on arrival condition

To book perishable freight, contact UCL Cargo with the commodity and variety, the volume, your required temperature or atmosphere, and the destination. We confirm routing, packaging, and certification before collection.