By MURIMI GITARI
January 10,2019,Nairobi.The new innovative packaging technology concept by Cargolite has seen more flower farms ship in to use the boxes due to the need of improving flower packaging in solving the problem on collapsing of regular boxes ,eventually damaging the flowers.
The concept saves companies in air freight and packaging cost. The forwarders have their share too, efficient offloading, box screening, and aircraft pallet building.
The unpacker in Europe was also well thought of in the concept, its quick and cost effective process in unpacking, giving a positive impact to the whole supply chain of up to the consumer who enjoys flowers of desired quality courtesy of Cargolite.
During the initiation of this concept in Kenya by the Israel based company, it was only Oserian Development Company Ltd that adopted the concept but currently other flower farms and buyers have started embracing the new technology. International Procurement Logistics (IPL) a UK buyer in Kenya now has three of its suppliers packaging their orders on Cargolite box: Oserian, Panda Flowers and Branan Flowers . Oserian and Karen Roses are packaging for SuperFlora BV a UK based importer.
There are certain key aspects that make this new modern technology more specialized and advantageous in comparison to the regular boxes calling for more flower farms to adopt this new technology.
According to Mr. Martin Kabaka, the Cargolite representative in Kenya, regular boxes collapse on arrival in Europe compared to Cargolite box that do not as there are plastic frames used to hold the boxes intact making them stable. The weight of the boxes is distributed within the column on the skids The boxes are able to achieve volumetric weight due to the less packaging materials and more flowers packing by staggering system thus saving on freight costs. In regular boxes Single Faced Kraft (SFK) are used in wrapping the bunches consuming space that could be used in packing of more flowers.
A kilogram of SFK cost one dollar. This is a direct saving for the farm by using Cargolite box because no wrapping is used on sleeved.
In case of raw materials, Kraft liner which is less weight and low volume is used.There are also customized pallets for these Cargolite boxes that are used to palletize 15 boxes per skids unlike regular boxes that are packed one by one.
Cargolite is now extending its wings to other countries to introduce the new technology. Trials have already been conducted in two flower farms in Ethiopia, AQ Roses and Ziway Roses in conjunction with Ethiopian Airways.
