Container
HAPAG-2238
40ft frozen reefer · −18 °C · seal 9904-A
In March of this year we followed one shipment through every handover. Nine days, six border points, seven named people. A document log of one reefer container, one frozen consignment, one route. This is what each line in the lane book looks like, from up close.
40ft frozen reefer · −18 °C · seal 9904-A
Green Globe variety · 28.0 t · EU Organic · 2 800 × 10 kg poly
Damietta → Rotterdam · 9 d transit · 1× weekly cadence
Cutting starts before sunrise. The artichoke heart oxidises quickly; the planning is around what can be field-cut, trimmed and tunnel-frozen inside four hours. Sameh's crew of twenty-four, mostly women from the surrounding villages on year-round contracts, fills the cooled flats and they leave the field at fifteen-minute intervals.
Soha runs the line. Six wash stations, two blanchers, one IQF tunnel commissioned 2024 with our co-funding. The lot finishes packing at 14:10 — 2 800 ten-kilo poly bags, palletised, hood-wrapped, manifested. The BRCGS audit photographs are taken during the shift; the lot's traceability folder is opened.
One truck, set −18 °C. Three hundred and forty kilometres to Damietta port. Hossam runs it through the night, with a single rest stop at the El-Mansoura services. Temperature trace logging at thirty-second intervals; this becomes part of the shipment file.
Container HAPAG-2238 staged at port cold store. Phytosanitary inspection at 09:00 same day, organic transaction certificate issued in the afternoon. Loaded at 16:50 onto the Hamburg-Süd feeder to Port Said.
Mainline reefer slot booked four months ahead. The container is monitored remotely by Hapag-Lloyd; we receive a temperature ping every two hours, which is also archived to the lot folder.
Container off-loaded 11:50, customs entry filed before lunch. The organic transaction certificate is cross-verified against the EU TRACES system. Clearance back at 14:30.
Twenty-eight tonnes through the door, lot folder e-mailed to Pieter twenty minutes before the truck arrived. Temperature seal intact. Sample taken from three bags by Pieter's QA. Cleared into stock at 17:40. Nine days door to door.
Twelve lanes between Egyptian and Dutch ports. Three modes: reefer sea, frozen reefer, air. The optional freeze-drying route via Gdansk is run on contract for two of our larger NL customers.
| Lane | Mode | Transit | Cadence | Typical cargo |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cairo · CAI → Rotterdam · RTM | Reefer sea | 8–11 d | 2× weekly | Fresh strawberry, artichoke, citrus |
| Damietta · DAM → Rotterdam · RTM | Frozen reefer | 7–10 d | 1× weekly | IQF artichoke, strawberry, molokhia |
| Alexandria · ALY → Rotterdam · RTM | Reefer sea | 9–12 d | 2× weekly | Pomegranate, mango (sea grade) |
| Cairo · CAI → Amsterdam · AMS | Air | 36–48 h | Daily | Soft fruit, herbs, late-season mango |
| Damietta · DAM → Gdansk · GDN → Rotterdam | Reefer + freeze-dry | 21–28 d | On contract | Strawberry, hibiscus, pomegranate (FD) |
| Rotterdam · RTM → Alexandria · ALY | Reefer sea | 7–9 d | 2× monthly | Seed potato, cultures |
| Rotterdam · RTM → Damietta · DAM | Dry container | 8–10 d | 2× monthly | Seed, irrigation tape, greenhouse film |
| Amsterdam · AMS → Cairo · CAI | Air | 24–36 h | 3× weekly | Seed (small lot), cultures, hybrid stock |
Four additional lanes — Damietta → Hamburg (reefer), Cairo → Liège (air), Rotterdam → Cairo (LCL), and the Aswan groupage to Damietta on the domestic side — not pictured.