MSC's cruise division enhances fresh food delivery with smart containers

Source: MSC Cruises

Smart containers alert suppliers to transit issues, allowing for on-the-go resolution and ensuring the freshness of chilled and frozen goods. MSC Cruises and Explora Journeys source 96% of their food locally, but use these containers to handle global shipments when local options are unavailable.

Last year, MSC Cruises used smart containers from their northern Italian warehouse in Genoa, resulting in improved quality assurance compared to 2022, when traditional road and sea transport methods were used.

MSC Cruises’ annual food delivery operation is extensive, with their fleet of 22 ships stocked with 5,500 different items, including 32 million eggs, 6 million litres of milk, 170,000 oysters, 2 million tomatoes, 900,000 kg of apples, and 800,000 kg of lemons. Each ship carries an average of 22,500 kg of fresh fruit, 20,000 kg of fresh vegetables, and 5,400 kg of fish on a 7-night voyage.

Enhanced logistics

Paolo Raia, managing director of MSC Procurement and Logistics, says: "The use of smart containers has made a significant positive impact on the supply of food, especially in markets where it is a challenge to source and acquire all of the products locally. For example, for our ships in the Middle East, the local production is limited, and some goods can take several weeks to travel from the warehouse to the vessel.

"Another major advantage with smart containers is that in real-time we can constantly monitor the humidity and temperature of the goods being transported and change the parameters in transit, if required, to deliver with absolute confidence the freshest and finest food for our guests."