MSC Cruises and Explora Journeys are partnering with MSC, the group's sister company and a world leader in container shipping, to use smart containers that will maintain the quality of the freshest products coming from warehouses and that will later be loaded onto the ships of both companies.
Each smart container has internet-connected devices that record data such as position, temperature and humidity, and are monitored in real time from a centralized Customer Service Center in Antwerp, Belgium.
If any problems arise during road or sea transport, an alert is sent to the supplier, who can resolve the issue while the container is in transit. This ensures that food requiring specific conditions to remain fresh reaches its destination without the need for costly replacements. These smart containers are especially useful for refrigerated and frozen products, such as meat, seafood, and dairy.
MSC Cruises and Explora Journeys source most of their food locally - around 96% - but when a product is unavailable, they supply it to their ships from a network of warehouses around the world.
Last year, MSC Cruises used smart containers from its warehouse in Genoa, in northern Italy, and achieved a higher level of food quality assurance than in 2022, when the company still used traditional methods to transport food by road and sea.
The scale of the food delivery operation is considerable. Each year, MSC Cruises' fleet of 22 ships is stocked with 5,500 different food and beverage items, including 32 million eggs, 6 million liters of milk, 170,000 oysters, 2 million tomatoes, 900,000 kg of apples, and 800,000 kg of lemons.
Each of MSC Cruises' 22 ships carries an average of 22,500 kg of fresh fruit, 20,000 kg of fresh vegetables and 5,400 kg of fish during a 7-night trip.
Paolo Raia, Managing Director of MSC Procurement & Logistics, explained that: “The use of smart containers has had a highly positive impact on food supply, especially in markets where it is a challenge to find and acquire all products locally. For example, on our ships in the Middle East, local production is limited and some products can take several weeks to arrive from the warehouse to the ship.”
“Another great benefit of smart containers is that we can monitor the humidity and temperature of the transported products in real time, and adjust the parameters during the journey, if necessary, to ensure with absolute confidence the delivery of the freshest and best quality food for our passengers.”.
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