Beaver Street Fisheries Inc.‘s Savitz savvily directs seafood supply chain

For nearly a third of a century, Paige Savitz has been hooked on importing seafood for Beaver Street Fisheries Inc. in her hometown of Jacksonville, Fla. Shipping methods and government regulations have changed a lot over the years, but Savitz has maintained her firm’s commitment to quality and food safety and, particularly in recent years, has enjoyed the proximity to Jacksonville Port Authority docks of the headquarters facility of Beaver Street Fisheries and its Sea Best retail brand. In an interview with the American Journal of Transportation, Savitz, Beaver Street Fisheries’ director of import operations, offers her thoughts on shipping seafood, her “unshellfish” role as a court-appointed child advocate and the 20-year-old African gray parrot that calls her “Mama.”

With your 33-year anniversary at Beaver Street Fisheries coming up in August, can you reflect on how the business of shipping of seafood has evolved over the past third of a century? Being here for nearly 33 years, I’ve definitely seen a change in how frozen seafood is shipped. Going back to when I first started my career in imports, and we were importing most of our cargo then from South America. It would come via breakbulk into Gloucester, Mass., and we would truck the product to Jacksonville in-bond via common carrier. Of course, there was a lot of opportunity for loss and damage in that type of movement. As our Asia business increased and containerized shipment became more the standard, we then started importing containers via Savannah and Charleston, and we would clear PAIRED [U.S. Customs Port of Arrival Immediate Release and Enforcement Determination] port entries in Jacksonville. PAIRED port entries are not even allowed anymore for clearing Customs [as of January 2011 program expiration]. Eventually, we changed and much of our cargo started shipping from Asia via the West Coast U.S.A., and we would move it mini-landbridge to Jacksonville. This was beneficial for awhile. It originally saved some transit time, but, as our volumes increased and, of course, addressing the issues on the West Coast, with FDA [Food and Drug Administration] delays, rail delays, port strikes that we’re all familiar with now, we made the decision to change to bring our cargo back all-water to East Coast ports years ago – thankfully, eventually, the majority coming to Jacksonville directly. What’s been interesting to me, too, is not even just the way the cargo moves, but even the actual construction and the type of reefer [refrigerated cargo] containers has changed and evolved over the years. Many of the current-day containers require special loading procedures so as not to impact the integrity of the frozen seafood products. There are other major changes I’ve seen, just in government regulations. In my experience importing, I have seen the implementation of MID [manufacturer’s identification] numbers, the Intermodal Safe Container [Transportation] Act [of 1992], FDA HACCP [Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points] regulations, FDA prior notice, ISF [import security filing] filings and, most recently, the full overhaul with FDA with the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act. With these types of regulatory changes, it often requires changes to your documentary requirements and your letter of credit format in order to be in compliance with these things. What particular logistics challenges are associated with a commitment to safe and sustainable sourcing? Not only does Beaver Street feel very strongly about safe and sustainable sourcing, but many of our customers demand it. And they demand it all the way from the raw material stage to the finished, packaged product. We’re able to accomplish this through memberships and support of various organizations, like the MSC, which is the Marine Stewardship Council, and ACC, which is Aquaculture Certification Council. In addition, we use, and we require from our vendors, a multitude of food safety processes and programs that align with programs like the Global Food Safety Initiative and Best Aquaculture Practices Seafood Processing Standards. In addition, our contracted carriers have corporate social responsibility policies in place that add to the safety and sustainability all the way through to delivery here to the United States. We also have a very strong and experienced quality assurance team with a commitment to food safety and quality. They inspect product from every container that delivers to Jacksonville, and that’s whether it comes to our facility or if it goes out to a public cold storage facility. For me, I would say one major challenge – and it’s not really logistically – is the cost associated to maintain compliance with many of these initiatives and certifications and the manpower it takes to be in compliance with the various requirements. Many of these require annual audits; that’s a lot of manpower that you have to throw at it. And there always seem to be new fees implemented at different ports, many times in regard to safety and sustainability that are passed on to the BCO [beneficial cargo owner], and all of this adds to the cost of the goods. How important is having a trusted, longstanding forwarder and customs broker partner to what you do? As far as freight forwarding goes, we actually deal directly with most of the carriers ourselves, especially with cargo coming here to Jacksonville. We do use forwarders for shipments that move to some inland destinations, and, in that aspect, it’s very beneficial and important to have a longstanding forwarder relationship and customs broker relationship. It’s important to have partners that understand the various requirements regarding the importation of food products and frozen seafood. We have many government agencies that we have to maneuver through and with, and a lot of it depends on country of origin, commodity and, in the seafood business, it even becomes in regard to the specific species of fish. So it’s important to have someone that knows all of this and that you’ve been working with and knows how you operate. We have partnered with JF Moran for many years. When I first started importing with Beaver Street, our first broker was Thomas Watkins, and he sold and I think Fritz [Companies Inc.] owned it next, but a lot of the people with Watkins moved with these new companies. The last one took place with JF Moran, and we’ve been with them for quite some time. How does your company benefit from its proximity to Jacksonville Port Authority facilities? Our facility is approximately 9 miles from Talleyrand [Marine Terminal], and we’re approximately 15 miles from TraPac [Container Terminal at JAXPORT’s Dames Point Marine Terminal], where the majority of our containers discharge. So the benefits of direct discharge to Jacksonville are substantial. Not only are there cost savings, but there’s also less opportunity for delay of our goods being delivered to us. You always have that risk, if cargo discharges in other ports, that it might be subjected to additional review by government agencies in that port. After cargo has discharged in Jacksonville, if we do choose to move container inland, we have big advantages here. We have two major Interstates that we can take north-south [I-95] and east or west [I-10], not that we have much farther east we could go, and, of course, we have access to major railways [CSX, Norfolk Southern and Florida East Coast Railway] here in Jacksonville. Can you please share about your “unshellfish” role as a child advocate in the guardian ad litem program and why this is significant to you? I wanted to give back something locally to our community, and I had a very good friend whose mother had been a GAL – or a guardian ad litem – for many years, so I chose that to be able to give locally, but also due to my love of children. I don’t have any children of my own, but I have over 50 nieces and nephews, which include great- and great-great-nieces and nephews, and I’ve still got a few more on the way. I’m blessed to have a large family, and we are able to help each other significantly, but not all families have that ability. I appreciated the opportunity to share some of my time with children who are less fortunate in many aspects. As a GAL, I serve as a court-appointed advocate for children in dependency cases. They are normally in those dependency cases due to abuse, neglect or abandonment. GALs act as the voice of the children in those cases, and our job is to work only in the best interest of the children. We visit the children regularly. We report directly to the court with updates and recommendations and concerns, and we also follow up with the parents and the guardians to be sure that they are following the case plan designated by the court. It’s been an eye-opener for me. I love doing it, and I don’t foresee stopping it anytime soon. What else might we find you involved in when you’re not at work at Beaver Street Fisheries? I’ve been a season ticketholder for the Jaguars since they came to Jacksonville [as its first National Football Team] in 1995, so, in the fall and winter, you’ll find me at EverBank Field on home Sundays. Other than that, my husband and I both have large families, and we both spend a lot of time with our families. In particular, we have elderly parents, so we spend a lot of time with them. We have two dogs, both shih tzu-Maltese mix, Cujo and Prissy, that we adore. My husband thought, as a puppy, he looked like the Cujo from the movie. My husband, Chris Savitz, is employed by the St. Johns Bar Pilot Association here in town. So, as a family unit, we’re deeply involved in the business. In addition to our dogs, we have an African gray parrot. His name is Jewels. Jewels is 20 years old. Is that unusual? No. They say, out in the wild, 20 to 25 years, but, in captivity, if they’re fed correctly and maintained correctly, they can live up to 50 years. We hope we have him that long. He talks and keeps us entertained. That’s for sure. What’s Jewels’ favorite phrase? Well, you have to be very careful what you say in front of them, because they will repeat everything. When you come home at night, he greets you. He calls me “Mama.” He calls my husband “Daddy.” When his parents come over, my in-laws, he says, “Hey, Grandma.” He calls her “Grandma,” which she adores. He picks up things and runs with it. You never know what it’s going to be. You really can’t pick a phrase and try to teach him how to say it. That’s not how it works. He picks what he wants to say, and that’s what he says. In addition, my husband and I were both born and raised here in Jacksonville, so we have many friends here who we’ve known going back to elementary school. We have a big family base and a big social base with friends. Other than that, we like working in our yard. We enjoy cooking out and entertaining with good Sea Best seafood.