By Karen E. Thuermer, AJOTDistribution of perishables, particularly produce, is changing rapidly. In fact, it is heading for a new paradigm. Nick Pacitti, a partner with Sterling Solutions, maintains that complex food supply chains are creating a critical need for the food industry to collaborate across enterprises to understand and improve end-to-end processes employed throughout the chains. In fact, his company, along with Georgia Tech’s Supply Chain and Logistics Institute, co-founded the Integrated Food Chain (IFC) Center to work with industry partners to initiate a cross-enterprise collaborative effort to prioritize projects that can bring the most value to the food industry in the shortest period of time. “This requires the ability to assess the value of improving these processes, employ new technology and take advantage of information requirements of new government regulations such as the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Food Safety Modernization Act,” Pacitti says. Transportation Concerns Consequently, industry partners are considering ways to reduce their supply chain spend. With most produce consumed in the United States sourced long distances from the West Coast, Florida and Latin America, logistics, including warehousing, is the biggest cost factor. In fact, produce is generally consolidated at various cold storage facilities near the ports. “Consequently, we are seeing big retailers and the processors look for ways to minimize their risk by diversifying the ports that they use,” Pacitti says. One big change occurring among produce importers is the decision to use less congested ports that are serviced by smaller ships, particularly those that are rail served. While not all ports offer rail-centric solutions, shippers today are opting to offload produce and dray it to transload facilities where it can be placed onto refrigerated box cars. “The produce is then railed up to the large Midwest and Mid-Atlantic and Northeast markets,” he says. Florida’s Port Manatee offers a good example. Located on Tampa Bay, Port Manatee is one of Florida’s largest ports and is the closest U.S. deepwater seaport to the Panama Canal. The port is unique in that it offers intermodal connectivity, competitive rates and a prime location with nearly 5,000 acres of surrounding green space ripe for development. Port Manatee owns and operates its own Class III railroad with 8 miles of on-site and exchange yard tracks connecting to CSX Transportation rail lines.  Completing the intermodal picture is 65 mph access to the interstate system directly from Port Manatee’s gates.  Trucks reach I-75 and I-275 without encountering any stoplights, putting all of North America in reach without the hassle of urban congestion. Add to this barge service operates between Port Manatee and the Port of Brownsville, Texas, which resides on the Mexico border. “This port, which has been underutilized, is now becoming a relatively requested port by the bigger processors,” Pacitti says. “The reason is retailers are requesting smaller ships and want to use ports capable of handling produce.” Not only does the port handle a significant amount of produce, it has Food and Drug Administration (FDA) inspectors on site. Rail-centric Solutions Furthermore, the railroads are investing in the port to offer dedicated trains. The service is not yet available at Port Manatee, but such a rail-centric solution would make it possible for produce coming in via a port to be offloaded from the ship, put into a refrigerated rail car, and then transported to a central distribution point. The point, Pacitti emphasizes, is that produce companies are beginning to consider rail transport. Rail can not only be an efficient alternative to trucking, but a cost saver too. “Depending on the cube, one can get up to four containers on one rail car,” he states. “The beauty of this