international cold chain
The International Cold Chain
Exporting frozen and refrigerated food products to China
“ I
want
By Sarah B. Hood
to get you on a slow boat to China” is the opening of an old tune sung by artists from Bing Crosby to Bette Midler. Since China has become a top export destination for Canada, many companies are hoping to start shipping goods there, but it can be difficult to arrange, especially if those products require special shipping conditions.
For instance, a limited number of facilities in Canada are approved for exporting meat and meat products to China, but supply chain solutions company VersaCold Logistics Services recently received approval for seven of its refrigerated warehousing facilities( in Delta, Abbotsford and Surrey, B. C.; Calgary and Lethbridge, Alta.; Winnipeg, Man.; and Brampton, Ont.) to export to frozen and refrigerated foods to China. The additional seven facilities bring VersaCold’ s total approved facility count to 10.
“ VersaCold is Canada’ s largest supply chain solutions company focused on temperature-sensitive products; all we handle is frozen or refrigerated food products,” said VersaCold president and CEO, Doug Harrison.
The company, which also ranks among the top five businesses of its kind in North America, has a warehousing unit with 31 facilities across Canada; several transportation units running trucking throughout Canada and the U. S.; a fourth-party logistics business that manages products by rail and sea as well as fully outsourced supply chain services; and a third-party logistics business that provides dedicated solutions to companies. VersaCold’ s clientele includes numerous major national food producers, retailers and distributors.
In order to become licensed to ship frozen or refrigerated meat to China, the company had to undergo a“ very deep review” process that took several months at the shortest, and as much as two years for some facilities. Some facilities already held export licenses for many countries around the world, but in order to become licensed for cold-storage shipments to China, they had to first show they could meet a series of requirements set by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency( CFIA) under the Meat Inspection Act.
“ There are multiple levels within the CFIA,” said Harrison.“ Through the Food Safety Enhancement Program( FSEP), they have specific requirements that have to be met for the export destination country. We have to meet all the regulatory requirements of Canada and other countries, but in many cases we put in place higher requirements for ourselves. We have an entire group that is headed up by food science individuals that we call our Cold Chain Assurance Group. They oversee food compliance and food safety as well as any processing we do for food products.”
Doug Harrison, the president and CEO of VersaCold
One of the Cold Chain Assurance Group’ s current projects is to bring all of VersaCold’ s distribution centres up to the British Retail Council( BRC) standard, which“ is a very high level of food safety and food quality, so in addition to these export standards, we are continuing to evolve our standards to above that level,” said Harrison.“ We tell our team members their role is all about food safety and being able to provide safe food to people in Canada and, for that matter, around the world.”
Over the past two years, VersaCold has worked with the CFIA and other Canadian government officials, as well as representatives of the People’ s Republic of China through a series of inspections of the company’ s facilities and processes to ensure they met all the requirements. Ultimately,“ those processes were already in place, so any changes were minor in nature,” said Harrison.
“ We don’ t own any of the product that is shipped in to us, but, starting with the producer of the food products, they also have to be licensed, so we can only be involved with export of product from producers that are equally licensed.”
The products destined for China are generally shipped by ocean.(“ In some cases where there’ s time-sensitivity, they may be shipped by air, but in many cases, we’ re putting containers on rail, then steamship, and they’ re disembarked onto truck.”)
For shippers and warehousers, says Harrison, the process begins with the local CFIA inspector, who conducts a
Photos courtesy of VersaCold
SUPPLY CHAIN CANADA • QUARTER 4 2016 • 19