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Buyers rarely see the middle of the journey. They see our loading photos and, two and a half weeks later, a truck at their cold store. Here is what happens in between, and where we spend our attention.

Day 0 — pre-cooling and stuffing

An empty reefer arrives at our dock and is pre-cooled to −20 °C for at least four hours before a single pallet goes in. Stuffing happens through a curtain in under ninety minutes; the cold store and the container are never both open to warm air. Twenty pallets, weighed, scanned, photographed. Two independent data loggers go in — one at the door, one deep in the load.

Day 1 — the port

Port Said and Sokhna are both under two hours away. The container is plugged in on arrival; the shipping line’s reefer technician logs set-point and supply air. Our forwarder sends us the plug-in confirmation before we go home.

Days 2–16 — at sea

A modern reefer holds ±0.5 °C. What breaks the chain is not the ship; it is a power interruption at transhipment. We book direct services wherever the schedule allows and pay for it. When transhipment is unavoidable we request the plug-out/plug-in times in writing.

The most expensive container is the cheap one that arrived at −12 °C.

Day 17 — arrival and documents

Documents travel faster than the box: the bill of lading, phytosanitary certificate, certificate of origin, health certificate, packing list and our lot-level quality report are all issued before the vessel sails. Customs pre-clearance in Rotterdam happens while the ship is still in the Mediterranean.

Day 18 — the door opens

• Pulp temperature is taken at the door and in the centre of the load before unloading.
• Both loggers are downloaded; the graph goes to the buyer the same day.
• Any deviation over −18 °C is reported by us first, not discovered by the buyer.

We have not lost a container to temperature in six years. That record is the product of boring, repeated attention — and it is the part of the job I am proudest of.