Demand for smaller food consignments seemed at odds with ever-larger box ships, mused Cool Logistics Resources CEO Alex von Stempel, reflecting on the points raised at the recent 7th Cool Logistics Global conference in Bruges.

"Who benefits from the widening logistics gap between container/truck loads and individually wrapped pizza packs delivered straight to your doorstep?" he said.

This was one of the key questions participants were left with at the convention at Bruges, sponsored by the Port of Zeebrugge.

It was three days of information covering global food and demand forecasts and consumer retail trends, world reefer shipping, distribution and storage concepts new packaging technologies.

Breaking news at this year's event included the official unveiling of Maersk Line's real-time remote monitoring implementation strategy for its 290,000-strong reefer container fleet.

This was the launch by Thermo King of R-513a refrigerant as a drop-in replacement for R-134 and the presentation of futuristic technologies such as proton vibration alignment.

Horticultural major Zespri invited visitors to a demonstration of kiwifruit handling and packaging practice at its packing plant in Zeebrugge. The company revealed that its spoilage rate is as low as 0.8 per cent.

Rabobank food supply chain analyst Paul Bosch said container lines are wary of shipping reefer containers to inland destinations.

"At the same time the internet-driven culture of convenience is pushing the last mile logistics sector to deliver perishable products through' ever-narrower delivery windows," he said.

"The only reason why pizzas are not yet being posted right through the letterbox is the lack of refrigeration on the doormat!" Mr Bosch quipped. "Consumers don't want to wait and don't want to pay extra."

Agro Merchants Group president Carlos Rodriguez, backed by US$100 billion Oaktree Capital fund, demonstrated the principle of perishable value migration by continuing to develop its network of global cold store operations.

From Europe and Latin Americas as well as the Middle East, Australia and the Far East, his company intends to invest $500 million a year with most cash going to emerging markets.

The US Department of Agriculture says world reefer transport grew 3.7 per cent a year between 2005 and 2014. In emerging markets it was up 5.4 per cent with developed markets at 0.7 per cent with annual growth is expected to be 7.4 per cent.

One market driver is Russia's agri import ban, the result of the diplomatic contretemps over the Ukraine. This results in the necessity for exporters to develop new markets.

According to Rabobank, the biggest jump between 2015 and 2020 will be in frozen and chilled processed, ie, packaged food, with the Asia Pacific region predicted to suck in most of the expanding seafood business.

Rabobank sees a bright future for frozen vegetables, a speciality of Dutch and Belgian vegetable producers, particularly those in the Roeselare region.

Fresh fruit and vegetable volumes are expected to grow modestly, said Rabobank. There has even been a decline in fresh produce consumption in Europe, as discussed at the recent sister event Cool Logistics Asia in Hong Kong.

Fresh Produce Consortium CEO Nigel Jenney said dwell times in ports have become a big problem. The situation was drastic at Jeddah, where San Lucar had to wait 19 days before its container was released.

Pointing the finger at the British government, Mr Jenney said there were five day dwell times in some British ports, largely due to inefficient food inspection regimes.

One of the worst cases was in Calais. According to Jenney, this year the UK fresh produce industry has been faced with losses of between GBP15 million (US$22.9 million) and GBP20 million, as a result of the European refugee crisis.

OOCL reef chief Derek O'Galligan revealed that shipping companies, freight forwarders, ports and truckers have created a working group to develop standards for the transportation of temperature controlled pharmaceuticals by sea.

The volumes of pharmaceuticals currently shipped by sea are minimal. However, the value is potentially immense. A reefer container with insulin can have a cargo value of over $10 million, he said.

One of the drivers behind the migration of pharmaceuticals from air freight to seafreight is the EU guidelines for the Good Distribution Practice (GDP) of medicinal products.

The announcement by Maersk that its entire reefer box fleet of 290,000 units has now been equipped with remote reefer monitoring technology from AT&T could in theory unlock new types of high value cargo to be shipped by sea in the future.

The new RCM system has also been rolled out across over 300 container terminals which have been locked with a geofence system, and also cover over 370 ships equipped with VSAT.

According to Mike Troiano, vice president at the American telecom giant AT&T, the new system will not only allow Maersk to remotely manage the reefer containers, provide customised alerts, but monitor the mechanical performance of the boxes.

The news was welcomed by the shipper community at Cool Logistics Global this year. Armando Larragan of Compagnie Fruitiere considered this to be a very important step forward in eventually providing shippers with end-to-end visibility.