Insights & News

Ram International Can Literally Keep Your Supply Chain (and Bananas) Safe From a Typhoon

Bananas on a wooden deck

Posted On December 11, 2018

Shipping frozen fruit and vegetables from Chile, Argentina, Mexico, and other spots around the globe to laboratories within the United States isn’t usually a particularly glamorous business.

Success in this field is about planning for United States Customs operations, gathering cargo from field investigators, and getting that cargo to laboratories throughout America for testing. In other words, our customers value Ram International’s reliability and dedication as well as our decades-long record as a freight forwarder of choice in the global agricultural market.

Normally, everything goes according to plan.

Unless there is a typhoon.

In September 2018, Typhoon Mangkhut landed in Asia. Unfortunately, Mangkhut brought havoc and destruction, resulting in several hundred fatalities and nearly $2.5B in damage across the Philippines, China, Hong Kong, Macau, Guam, and the Northern Mariana Islands. Needless to say, the storm was devastating for the communities and economies in that region. Like with any hurricane and typhoon, the impact on the agricultural sector was especially acute. In the Philippines alone, the government projects the agricultural loss to be north of $300M in U.S. dollars.

It was also a call for Ram International to demonstrate the dedication and reliability we are known for. With very little warning (a tropical depression first spotted on September 7th intensified into a named typhoon by September 9th), the Ram team had to spring into action.

Thankfully, we were able to get the cargo out just ahead of Typhoon Mangkhut making landfall.

What was the cargo in this case?

Frozen bananas.

(If you’re enjoying a smoothie right now, you might have Ram International to thank.)

Though we aren’t faced with devastating typhoons on a regular basis, the team at Ram International is used to facing and overcoming unexpected obstacles.

That’s just what we do.

(Like the time we helped one of our customers import 1,488 bottles of wine from Bordeaux, France, to Alaska while solving an unexpected customs delay in Europe. While not as important as the agriculture we moved out of the Philippines, customers still need their wine—especially in the midst of an Alaskan winter.)

Best of all, when you partner with Ram International, you’re working with a team of supply chain experts.

Ram International is part of the Flat World Holdings family of companies, which together provide a comprehensive suite of supply chain solutions. Need to get frozen crops from wherever they were grown to the United States for testing? Not only can Ram International ensure the crop moves through customs offices efficiently and effectively, sister company Flat World Supply Chain can help ensure your shipment has maximum visibility right until the moment the shipment arrives at its intended destination.

And we don’t just specialize in bananas. Or wine. Or agricultural products.

Our team of supply chain experts working for Ram International, Flat World Supply Chain, Ram Custom Crating, Flat World Hospitality, and Prologue Technology assists shipping departments in just about every industry you can imagine. For example, if you’re drinking that smoothie prior to hitting the gym, there is a good chance you’re exercising on equipment manufactured by one of the Flat World family’s greatest success stories.

Whatever you need to ship, we would be glad to work with you—and solve any unexpected obstacles that come up along the way.

Even when that obstacle is a typhoon.