Customized Brokers awaits Chilean cherries and blueberries
Customized Brokers awaits Chilean cherries and blueberries
Customized Brokers, a Crowley company in Miami, is a licensed brokerage and Nelly Yunta is its vice president.
“We expect mainly cherries and blueberries from Chile this season,” said Yunta. “Cherries will arrive for about six months, or through March.”
Although the volumes that Customized Brokers is currently handling are what the company expected, Yunta noted that there were some issues with Argentinean blueberries this year due to insects found on shipments. This product had to be re-exported or destroyed.
Yunta has been involved in the Florida Perishables Trade Coalition, commonly referred to as FPTC, since its beginning. FPTC was successful in getting a pilot program approved that allows fresh fruits to enter the United States through Southern ports. Last October marked the start of the third year that fresh fruits are arriving in Southern ports.
Yunta and her colleagues at FPTC continue to focus the collective experience and efforts of industry leaders. Members of the industry are invited to join the FPTC to help shape, direct and fund its efforts, to grow perishable trade in Southern ports by addressing the cold treatment issues, reviving perishable logistics workshops, and undertaking new initiatives to make agricultural trade grow and prosper in Southern ports.
More information is available at www.customizedbrokers.net/Founding-Member-Florida-Perishables-Trade-Coalition.
Yunta said that Chilean blueberries are delayed by about two weeks this season.
“Chile has encountered problems with medfly, so commodities arriving from affected areas require treatment,” she said. “The U.S. Department of Agriculture has increased its overtime fees and has implemented a treatment fee that will be applied to shipments that require treatment upon arrival.”
