“When flowers are transported with care, their value significantly increases"

"Over the years, we have successfully enhanced the appearance, integrity, and sustainability of Kenyan flowers. It's hard to quantify in dollars, but when flowers are transported with care, their value significantly increases," says Amnon Zamir, HR manager who together with John Kowarsky, Cargolite's CEO, regularly visits Kenya to promote Cargolite's packaging concept. Cargolite products aim to improve the efficiency of flower transportation while addressing the impact of rough handling and reducing the carbon footprint. Recently, they expanded their range to include new boxes, the Slimskid, and the 'Eyes on the Ground' service. In this article they tell more about these concepts, and the way they support the activities of sister company Afrex 2003 Pty Ltd, which specializes in exporting agricultural products from South Africa and Kenya.

Five Cargolite air pallets ready to go from Kenya

Space, cost, and waste reduction
Eight years ago, John and Amnon introduced their patented Cargolite cartons to tackle major challenges in flower logistics. The design of these cartons, they explain, features a protective skeleton that prevents the flowers from being crushed or shift during transit. Additionally, the Cargolite boxes are lighter and don't require extra packaging materials like SFKs, allowing more space for flower stems. "This space-saving design reduces air freight costs per stem. Furthermore, our efficient packaging method reduces the carbon footprint by up to 12% compared to standard packaging, which is particularly relevant with the growing importance of EU carbon footprint regulations," they note.

To better accommodate smaller flower orders, Cargolite has also introduced two smaller box sizes along with a matching Master box. "These smaller boxes allow the farm to offer smaller pack units, adapting to the needs of their customers. When farms can't fill a full pallet or skid, the Master box comes in handy. It has room for 3 half boxes or 6 quarter boxes and keeps the cartons together so that the flowers arrive in better condition, giving the product a superb look."

All of these boxes are compatible with Cargolite's Slimskid, which is designed to offer a lighter, space-saving alternative to traditional skids. We tie the Slimskid to the boxes so that all the boxes can be lifted as a unit from the regular skid. The regular skid stays on the ground, it doesn't leave the airport while the Slimskid with the boxes is loaded as a unit onto the air pallet. So the Slimskid works like a regular skid without the weight and volume of the regular skid (14 cm)," they explain.

The Slimskid being lifted

Streamlining logistic processes
The products of Cargolite are also deployed to support the mission of Afrex 2003 Pty Ltd, which is run by John and Etienne Taitz. They believe that the Cargolite cartons considerably improves logistic processes. Airfreighting flowers is quite challenging these days, they find. "The market needs products that can be delivered efficiently from farms directly to end customers with minimal handling, and to reduce the increasing costs of repacking and trucking in Europe. With air cargo space being scarce, and prices rising steadily, there is a need to counter these challenges without any delay. We seek to improve the efficiency of logistics for the customers that buy in Kenya and South Africa and distribute the product worldwide."

At Afrex, they find that maximizing airway bills and the number of products shipped per flight are key to tackling the aforementioned logistic challenges. Their approach is to gather as many flowers as possible from many different growers, so that large quantities can be exported on one single AWB. "To make sure that the air pallets are full, we collect products from many different farms. Our strength is that we know hundreds of Kenyan and South African farms, and our teams in Kenya and South Africa, are constantly visiting farms frequently. Furthermore, our ability to connect customers to farms sets us apart from other exporters."

As part of these efforts, Afrex offers the 'Cargolite wholesale kit' to importers and wholesalers. "The farms need less packaging material for roses than what is required in the standard manner of packing, which not only cuts costs and saves space but also reduces flower damage occurring when in transit. By combining our knowledge of Kenyan flower farms with Cargolite's uniform packaging system, we offer wholesalers a one-stop service. Our clients have the flexibility to choose which services they wish to use."

The 'Cargolite wholesale kit': quarter and half cartons in the Master box

'Eyes on the ground' and looking ahead
Besides products, Cargolite also provides services including the 'Eyes on the Ground' monitoring service. Amnon and John: "This service is available free of charge to all farms using our cartons. So far, there are about 50 farms that use our boxes in Kenya. We create a WhatsApp group for each customer, connecting farms with their clients in Europe, allowing all of them to stay updated about the process. This way, the farms immediately know when there is a packing issue, and it can be quickly corrected. Thanks to these updates, the farms can be sure that their cartons leave Kenya in good condition, and arrive at the destination looking proud and neat."

Air pallet wit XL and Half cartons leaving Nairobi

The last years, Cargolite has mainly focused on Kenya, however in the future they seek to implement their concept in other flower producing countries. "We are very proud of our products and the impact that Cargolite has had on the Kenyan flower industry. We were the first to encourage the use of skids for flowers in Kenya, and now they are being used more regularly. We believe that it could equally work in Colombia and Ecuador. The flowers exported from all growing countries need to be handled with more care and less abuse. Whether we are based in Africa or South America, Cargolite will always continue to explore new ways to innovate and improve flower logistics globally for all stakeholders involved in this industry."

To enhance and develop Cargolite and Afrex, both companies have joined forces and will market their products together. Cargolite and Afrex products merge strongly together and therefore will be exhibiting together on stand D5.15 at the IFTF Expo in Holland from 5-7 November, 2024.

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