FreightWaves Classics: Shipping line brought fresh fruit to the Northeast in the late 1800s

Horse-drawn wagons carry bananas from the wharf. (Photo: collectorsweekly.com)

Background

No matter the time of year, you can visit a grocery store or supermarket in almost any community in the United States and find fresh fruit and vegetables from across the country and around the world. In contrast, during the late 1800s, the diets of most U.S. residents did not contain nearly as many fresh fruits and vegetables as we eat today. Also, most fruit and vegetables were consumed relatively near where they were grown. (However, refrigerated railroad freight cars began to be...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/freightwaves-classics-shipping-line-brought-fresh-fruit-to-the-northeast

FreightWaves Flashback 1971: ‘Breakthrough’ reported in test shipment of melons to UK stores

The many industries that make up the world of freight have undergone tremendous change over the past several decades. Each Friday, FreightWaves explores the archives of American Shipper’s nearly 70-year-old collection of shipping and maritime publications to showcase interesting freight stories of long ago.

The following is an excerpt from the September 1971 edition of the Florida Journal of Commerce.

The first three test shipments of Florida watermelons to London have been completed and all...

https://s29755.pcdn.co/news/freightwaves-flashback-1971-breakthrough-reported-in-test-shipment-of-melons-to-uk-stores

Port Tampa Bay slices warehouse operator’s payments

The coronavirus pandemic has spoiled a chunk of the fruit import business in the United States. Because of that decline, Port Tampa Bay’s board this week took a big slice out of a refrigerated warehouse tenant’s monthly payments. 

The board on Tuesday agreed to defer a $25,000 monthly loan payment for seven years and drop rent from $31,000 a month to 5% of revenues once those hit $5 million annually.

Port Logistics Tampa Bay leases 13.7 acres of land with a 140,000-square-foot refrigerated...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/port-tampa-bay-slices-warehouse-operators-payments

China: Fruit imports exceed exports

The Rural Development Research Center at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences recently published a report titled “China’s Rural Development, Analysis and Predictions”, which shows that China experienced a rare trade deficit in the import and export of fruit in 2018.

China imported 5.5 million tons of fruit in 2018. The import value reached 8.42 billion USD, which is a growth of 34.5% in comparison with 2017. The export value reached 7.16 billion USD in 2018, which is a growth of 1.2% in...

https://container-news.com/china-fruit-imports-exceed-exports/

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