Issue link: http://osercommunicationsgroup.uberflip.com/i/1173472
Produce Show Daily Thursday, October 17, 2019 4 8 company is also leading the way with integration of electronic airway bills (eAWB) with airlines, while introducing new mobile Quality Check (QC) tools for better freshness grading and quality reports. Orlando Wong, Able Freight Services' Executive Vice President, notes that Able Freight remains com- mitted to embracing new technology. "Able Freight adapts relevant technolo- gy for use in the perishable freight for- warding industry, as the market demands more and more high-perfor- mance and precision among its play- ers," explains Wong. Able Freight has become one of the first perishable freight forwarding com- panies to create a Technology and Innovation Department. "Able's leader- ship in the transportation and logistics industry is because of the company's focus upon real-time data visibility, atomization and predictive systems," Wong notes. He sees an even greater technologi- cal focus over the next five years. Such focus has created a culture of innovation within the company and gives all employees a sense of community for its new technology vision. One of Able's recent projects from its technology department is its new cus- tomer portal called DataHub ® . A web and mobile-based system that provides real- time data pertaining to any shipment a customer has going through Able Freight Services, DataHub provides one-stop, Able Freight (Cont'd. from p. 1) real-time visibility of all the related doc- uments of the customer's shipments and allows for proactive resolutions and com- munications. Another application of technology involves Able's "Freshport ® " initiative, piloting a cutting-edge blockchain enhancement to its DataHub for tempera- ture measurements deploying commodi- ty-based shelf-life formulas for its global clients. The company is also leading the way for electronic airway bill (eAWB) integration allowing optimized efficien- cies, real-time status updates and paper- less communications with airlines. In fact, Able was No. 1 at LAX for imple- mentation in 2018 and the first half of 2019. Recently, Able Freight also intro- duced a new mobile Quality Control tool which resulted in improved reporting of the product's quality as received in real- time. Wong looks forward to the tremen- dous improvements that technology is affording the shipping industry. "If the industry does not effectively adapt the opportunities in technology, then the risk of obsolescence becomes very real, very fast," notes Wong. Able Freight Services is based in Los Angeles, California, and is a global expert in importing and exporting perish- able commodities from the United States to destinations worldwide. For more information, visit booth #4435/4534, email sales@ablefreight.com or go to www.ablefreight.com. partnered with NNZ Inc. to distribute Clipps closures for bags. Clipps work on all existing automated bagging machinery and come in the same styles and opening sizes as the current prod- uct. NNZ Inc. will be stocking the product in its seven warehouses throughout the U.S. to allow for just in time delivery, without the two week delay for production. The product is packaged in the same quantities as the current product (number of clips/roll, number of rolls/case, number of cases/pallet) so that no new calcula- NNZ (Cont'd. from p. 1) tions are necessary to determine what is needed for production and ordering. In addition, the Clipps product has been competitively priced, which allows for a cost savings to the cus- tomer base. "Competition is good for all," remarks Greenfield. "It fosters innova- tion and ultimately it benefits the cus- tomer. While patents have their place, it is always good to have a choice. Now the market has that choice. Hopefully people will choose the Clipps product." For more information, call 800.634.7666 or go to www.nnz.com. El Sol answered the call to very strict packing and traceability require- ments. Its associates, growers and pack- ers are Global Gap and Primus certified to ensure your peace of mind. El Sol stays up at night so that you won't have to. The consumer list of the category El Sol serves goes beyond Hispanic demo- graphics. Asian, Indo-Chinese, African and many other people of the tropics form part of El Sol's demographic target. El Sol (Cont'd. from p. 1) In addition, consumers in the general market are also experimenting with El Sol's products. If you and your team lack the whats, the whys and the hows, El Sol will train you and your team. Eliminating that intimidating factor of not understanding the category is noth- ing new. The future starts today. Are you ready? If not, call El Sol, and the compa- ny will get you on your way. For more information, visit booth #1455. Rehabilitating Palm Oil's Reputation By Lorrie Baumann Neil Blomquist is on a quest to per- suade consumers that palm oil isn't inherently either unhealthy or immoral. He's fighting his battles in a world in which his audience has already been bombarded with publicity that suggests otherwise. Palm oil came to dominate the vegetable oil market after trans-fats were discovered to be harmful to human health, partly because, like coconut oil, it's a solid at room temper- ature and has a high smoke point and largely because the trees that produce the fruit from which the palm oil is made are so productive. Oil palm trees are six to 10 times more efficient at producing oil than oilseed crops such as canola, soybean, olive and sun- flower. A hectare of oil palms (about 2.5 acres) produces an average of about 3 tons of oil per year, and theo- retical productivity is more than 8 tons of oil per year. Soybeans, the world's second-leading source of vegetable oil, yield about half a ton of oil per hectare. In addition, oil palms are a permanent crop that doesn't have to be replanted every year. "You plant a tree, and you can harvest fruit from that tree for up to 40 years," Blomquist said. "It doesn't require annual replanting. Farmers are cutting fruit from the tree every week and get a constant flow of income." That productivity made the oil cheaper to produce than its alterna- tives, which made it a natural choice in 2006 when the U.S. Food and Drug Administration required food manu- facturers to declare trans fats on their product labels. Trans fats were banned from the nation's food supply in 2018, three years after the FDA ruled that they are unsafe to eat. Demand for the oil was also prompted by the passage of laws by Western nations in the mid- 2000s to encourage the use of veg- etable oils in fuels, which was sup- posed to reduce carbon dioxide emis- sions and help curb global warming as well as cut the United States' depend- ence on foreign oil. The boom in demand for the oil led to widespread clearing of tropical rain forest to plant oil palms. Global palm oil production increased from 15.2 million tons in 1995 to 62.6 mil- lion tons in 2015, according to the European Palm Oil Alliance. Production is led by Indonesia and Malaysia, which are the leading exporters of palm oil worldwide. By 2018, more than 3.5 million hectares of Indonesian and Malaysian rain forest had been cleared, destroy- ing about 80 percent of orangutan habitat and putting the apes on the World Wildlife Fund's critically endangered list. Fewer than 80,000 orangutans survive in the wild today, according to the WWF, and shrinking forest habitat in the region is also threatening elephants, the Sumatran Rhino and the Sumatran Tiger, all also critically endangered. Environmental organizations alarmed by the loss of wildlife habitat and by the climate change impacts of widespread deforestation began applying very public pressure to industrial users of palm oil. Under pressure from these powerful advocacy groups, some manu- facturers and restaurant chains have eliminated palm oil from their recipes, other palm oil buyers have switched to palm oil that's certified not to have con- tributed to deforestation, and some are still embroiled in the controversy. The World Wildlife Fund provides an online scorecard that scores Ahold, the Delhaize Group, Walmart and Britain's Marks & Spencer with a perfect 9 out of 9 points on a scale that rewards companies for commitment to responsi- ble sourcing of palm oil; Costco, Kroger and Target with a 2 score and Safeway with a 1. Among manufacturers, Ferrero, FrieslandCampina, Mars and Hershey all received perfect 9-point scores, while Smucker's got 4 points and Campbell's got 2. It's not all about shame and blame, though – the World Wildlife Fund is also a founding member of the Roundtable for Sustainable Palm Oil, which creates standards for sustainable palm oil production and certifies qual- ified growers and processors. According to the WWF, about 20 per- cent of the world's palm oil is now cer- tified sustainable by the RSPO. Blomquist is the Director of Innovation and Business Development for Natural Habitats, which produces palm oil in Ecuador, and he's a fan as well as an employee. He says that his company, a member of the RSPO, com- plies with the strictest RSPO standards to ensure that entire supply chain is fully traceable, that all of its oil is grown under sustainable organic prac- tices to protect the watershed and the soil and that Natural Habitats has also gone above and beyond by adopting social justice practices that protect the workers that produce the oil. He says that his company is one of three major producers in the world that protect both the environment and the indigenous communities in the tropical regions where the oil palm is cultivated. Natural Habitats calls its approach "Palm Done Right." The company is currently sourcing its oil from 180 small Ecuadorian farms converted from conventional to organic agriculture. "There are new farmers in queue all the time because we're growing and need more oil," Blomquist said. "Our focus is on transitioning conventional farmers to organic." "When you look at the mill itself, we have a much more sustainable sys- tem: little to no waste, and water efflu- ent is treated into a final water that you can grow tilapia in," he added. "When you press the oil, you get fiber, which is collected and used as fuel for the boilers." Ecuadorian law provides some pro- tection for the farmers, with labor laws that mandate a minimum wage and pro- vide for health care coverage for work- ers, but enforcement is spotty, Blomquist said, and so Palm Done Right also carries Fair for Life certification, which provides additional protection for both the workers who grow the oil palms and those who process the oil. "It's a much more transparent relation- ship with the workers," Blomquist said. "We make sure the farmers follow these higher level rules as well."