Pakistan is a thriving agricultural state wherin agriculture sector contributes more than a quarter of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Amongst the large exports from agricultural produce, the exports of citrus fruits alone generate multi-million US Dollar revenues in a year for Pakistan.

Exports of perishable goods like fruits, vegetables, pharmaceuticals, fresh produce amongst others requires high levels of expertise during its transportation in refrigerated containers (Reefers). Maersk Pakistan’s efforts to ensure top standards in these processes has already seen the company gain almost a quarter of the country’s citrus export market share in the year 2018-19. Moving reefer containers from Pakistan to several parts of the world, Maersk has been highly successful in delivering fresh citrus to Europe, Far East and Gulf countries and ensuring that the fruits reach their destinations in top quality.

For the citrus export season in 2019-20, Maersk Pakistan worked with Pakistani exporters to understand how to provide further value in the supply chain. In addition to the ocean leg of transport, Maersk added landside transportation as part of the same booking, ensuring that the cargo of fruit was picked from the packhouses of the exporters and delivered to container yards near the port via a single booking and a one-window operation. The customers were no more hassled to deal with multiple vendors and truckers, and typical worries such as concerns of container shortages, vehicle shortages and the associated rate volatility were all resolved with Maersk taking on the full responsibility, providing exporters peace of mind right from the time of booking.

At Maersk, it is our top priority to ensure that our customers have access to products and solutions that meet their end-to-end supply chain needs. Wastage of agricultural produce is a big cost to producers, consumers and the economy. Starting with transportation of perishable cargo we are confidently moving ahead to develop strong end-to-end cold chain logistics solutions in Pakistan. This is just the first step towards offering integrated logistics solutions. We have technology that enables customers to monitor temperature of cargo throughout the supply chain from origin to destination. Additional elements such as Customs House Brokerage and even the possibility of Cold storage will provide real end-to-end control and value for movement of a wide range of agricultural produce and with that, we intend to go all the way in ensuring that we offer best solutions to our customers.