Damco announced that Sun America Imports, Inc., a leading US based import wholesaler of fresh produce and perishables from Latin America to North America, has awarded the company a major contract to provide end-to-end management of the company's entire supply chain from Latin America to North America. The contract builds on an already existing collaboration between the two companies and represents an estimated yearly volume in excess of 10,000 FFE with a strong opportunity for additional expansion into new markets for Sun America including Europe.

Under the terms of the agreement, Damco will provide Sun America Imports with advanced end-to-end supply chain management handling all landside services, ocean transportation, providing cargo insurance and offering complete visibility throughout the supply chain.

'We look forward to expand our relationship and optimize our sourcing and supply chain in close cooperation with Damco. Our goal is to increase profitability by reducing intermediary dependency and bring down our overall logistics and transportation costs,' said Drew Kislin, Managing Director of Sun America Imports. 'Our goal is also to use Damco's strong presence and network across all of the key perishable markets to jointly grow the business and our businesses to include more product groups and eventually begin exporting fresh produce to new markets in Europe.'

'To Damco, the Sun America win represents an important milestone. Not only due to the sheer size of the deal, but also due to the fact that it reemphasizes the overall industry change of direct sourcing and illustrates how Damco's unique value proposition within reefer allows wholesalers based in North America and Europe to be an active part of this important industry trend,' said Ole Schack Petersen, Global Head of Reefer Logistics at Damco. 'Efficiency, lower overall logistics costs, shorter time to market and thus a longer produce shelf-life are some of the key benefits we expect to create for Sun America Imports.'