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Customized Brokers geared and ready for berry import increases this year

Consumers in North America have become accustomed to having berries 12 months a year, and imports enable that to happen.

Nelly Yunta, vice president of Customized Brokers in Miami, said the company anticipates an increase in berry volumes this season.

“Some of our customers are increasing their productions in Argentina,” said Yunta. “Peru is also planning to continue expansion of growing areas and production.”

Customized Brokers is owned by Crowley Maritime Corporation, based in Jacksonville, FL. Crowley, a family- and employee-owned company, provides transportation and logistics services in United States and international markets.

Customized Brokers provides services to its customers at the PortMiami and Port Everglades. It also handles ocean cargo in ports in California and Michigan.

“The berries that come through Customized Brokers are primarily from Argentina, Chile and Peru, with Chile as the source of the largest volume for us,” said Yunta. “We do not distinguish berry categories, so therefore we don’t have data on changes by category. However, all berry categories continually increase, and we anticipate it would again this season.”

Yunta explained that while there are no new U.S. Customs & Border Protection restrictions on imported berries, the ones put in place last year continue to be in effect.

“We encountered Chilean berries that were affected by the Lobesia botrans, as well as continued concerns with the Medfly last season” she said. “The requirements are cold treatment or fumigation. These treatments can be performed in Chile, in transit or at arrival to the port, with certain restrictions. Customized Brokers can help customers determine the best course of action before importing.”

Customized Brokers, Yunta stressed, offers 24-hour-a day, seven-day-a-week, 365-day-a-year service, and a client web portal.

“This portal offers full visibility into the U.S. Customs & Border Protection process,” Yunta pointed out. “Additionally, through partnerships with parent company Crowley Maritime Corp., Customized Brokers can provide full logistics solutions, including a cold-storage distribution and warehouse facility, CrowleyFresh, in Miami, for shippers.”

In August, Yunta said that on Nov. 1, the trade community will be required to use Customs & Border Protection’s Automated Customs Environment for all electronic cargo release and related entry summary filing.

The Nov. 1 benchmark is the second in the three-step process to fully implement ACE as the single window for filing electronic data in lieu of legacy systems.

“The government agencies have been working on this for a long time to get it going,” explained Yunta. “In the future, they will all see the same documents. We truly expect this is going to be good. The agencies have done a good job in promoting the single window.”

According to U.S. Customs & Border Protection, ACE features will modernize and streamline trade processing across all sectors. ACE capabilities cover manifest, cargo release, post release, export and partner government agencies. It will be fully implemented on Oct. 1, 2016.

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