Loes van Beelen works at IAA Fresh International, a company that specializes in air and sea transport of perishables which recently celebrated its first anniversary. The company in no time became a major player in the market and is making more and more of a name for itself in the bulb, seed and raw material producing sector. "We do this by striking good deals with airlines. That's the trick and to do it you need to have a lot of knowledge and experience, and offer an excellent service. I think we stand out in these areas."
The celebration of the first anniversary
Experience
Beelen has been in the business for thirty years, colleague Piet Segers forty and together with their other colleagues they have over 100 years of experience. "To have this experience in the pocket is important for several reasons.
One: the transport industry is constantly evolving and each day you are confronted with a different situation. Each country has different requirements on incoming goods and you have to know when and where you can enter what. In addition, you have to build a network. IAA Fresh virtually has agents everywhere in the world which can mediate on the spot for us in those countries, making contacts and knowing the specific problems and opportunities of the country in question."
Service
"The second point, providing service, is also important," continues Beelen. "Then you think of speed, storage, product knowledge, qualified drivers and a broad knowledge of the market which allows us to think along with the customer. Also, we try to combine products which drops the costs and we literally find a way into the strangest places. Cuttings to Pago Pago, an island in the Pacific Ocean for example. Or by order of the UN vegetable seeds to crisis areas such as Eritrea."
Cuttings
In particular, the transport of cuttings has increased dramatically in recent years, explains Beelen. "You have them in all shapes and sizes, from in vitro to mature plants. All of this should be protected and temperature and humidity should be kept at a certain level and in all it should not take too long. These factors make the volume and weight of a shipment increase significantly. A few days ago, we had a shipment of 30 kilos of raw material, but due to the reasons mentioned before, the total volume weight came in at around 150 kilos."
A special employee at IAA The 'explosive detection dog’. Every night the dog checks incoming goods for the presence of prohibited substances.
Ocean freight
Another important discipline within the company is transporting bulbs. That comes to millions of kilos. Since bulbs are heavy and long lasting and also because container ships are getting faster, it is cheaper to send a boat. Not long after the founder and director Tony van den Brande started the business, in Rotterdam an office for managing and streamlining sea freight was opened. "With that we could respond to the demand from our customers. Exporters and producers of bulbs, plants and raw material often benefit from both forms of transport."
For more information:
IAA-Fresh
Loes Beelen
Schiphol Rijk
T: +31 20 3162010
E: [email protected]www.iaa-fresh.com
