Source: adapted from Seabury Cargo Advisory.
The nature of the transport of cold chain food products varies substantially according to the transport mode, which is a matter of speed. For instance, about 96% of the food cold chain cargo carried by air transport is fresh (chilled temperature; 2 degrees Celsius), while the remaining 4% is frozen (-10 degrees Celsius). Freight forwarders are willing to pay the premium air cargo rate to ensure that perishable products are quickly available on global markets.
Since frozen products have a longer shelf life, maritime transport assumes a much higher share of this form of cold chain transport (37% of the cold chain cargo it handles). Many of the fresh cargo that maritime shipping transports concerns tropical fruits such as bananas and pineapples.