What transportation is used for international trade of fresh food?

In international trade, the most common mode of transportation for fresh food is sea freight. Fresh food falls under the category of frozen products, which require a stable temperature during transportation to maintain freshness, prevent spoilage, and preserve taste.

In practice, according to market demand, expensive air freight and rail transport are also used to meet the diversity of international trade.

The most widely used cold-chain transportation is low-cost sea freight, suitable for large-volume and long-storage fresh products such as fruits, vegetables, frozen meat, and seafood.
Refrigerated containers allow temperature control from -30°C to +20°C, with ventilation and real-time monitoring during transit.
Sea freight has a relatively long transit time, usually several weeks, making it irreplaceable for long-distance transportation.

In addition, sea freight is greatly affected by port congestion, shipping schedules, and seasonal space shortages. Advance planning of booking cycles is required, together with complete pre-cooling facilities to ensure the goods reach the proper temperature before loading.

In actual fresh food transportation, multimodal transport is often adopted:
sea/air freight + road/rail cold-chain short-haul delivery + cold-storage transit,
to balance timeliness and cost-effectiveness.