South Korea to ship strawberries, grapes by sea with new CA export program

South Korea has unveiled an integrated information program to help exporters ship fresh produce — including strawberries, grapes and oriental melons — by sea, in a move expected to accelerate a shift away from costlier air freight.

The Rural Development Administration said Wednesday it has published a "Horticultural Crop CA Export and Quality Management" program on the website of the National Institute of Horticultural and Herbal Science. The program consolidates controlled atmosphere (CA) transport conditions by crop, mixed-loading compatibility, and pre- and post-export quality management information in a single platform.

CA technology reduces oxygen levels and regulates carbon dioxide concentrations inside shipping containers to suppress produce respiration and preserve freshness. Because it minimizes quality degradation over long-distance transport, it is considered a key enabler of sea exports, which cost less than air freight.

The RDA said it has researched CA transport conditions for major fresh produce items, establishing 30 sets of environmental conditions and eight export models.

As a result, the range of exportable crops has expanded beyond the original focus on strawberries and oriental melons to include grapes, melons, watermelons and sweet potatoes. The number of destination countries has grown from five — including Japan and Hong Kong — to 11, adding Vietnam, Singapore, Thailand and Dubai, among others.

Sea exports of fresh produce using CA containers have also grown rapidly. Shipments were virtually nonexistent through 2021, but climbed to 29 in 2022, 100 in 2023 and 188 in 2024, reaching a cumulative 250 this year.

A standout example is the oriental melon, which was successfully shipped to Singapore by sea after a combined quality management approach — cold storage, pre-cooling and functional packaging — was applied. The loss rate fell from the 25 to 40 percent typical of conventional sea shipping to below 1 percent, while logistics costs dropped 40 to 60 percent compared with air transport.

Melons and watermelons retained their freshness after a 33-day voyage to Dubai, while grapes were sold in Vietnam through a retail model using local CA storage that allowed phased sales over four to five weeks.

Users of the new program can enter the export crop, timing, destination country and estimated transit time to retrieve recommended temperature ranges, oxygen and carbon dioxide levels, loading sequences and quality management methods for each crop. When multiple items are loaded in a single container, the program also indicates whether mixed loading is feasible and provides appropriate transport conditions.

The program currently covers 20 crops, including strawberries, oriental melons, melons, watermelons, grapes, apples, pears, citrus, sweet potatoes, paprika, tomatoes, green onions, spinach, perilla leaves, lettuce and mushrooms. The RDA plans to add 10 more items this year, including kiwifruit, blueberries, garlic, onions and napa cabbage.

"CA container technology is a practical tool that can broaden South Korea's fresh produce export structure — which has long depended heavily on air transport — toward sea shipping," said Son Jae-yong, head of the storage and distribution division at the National Institute of Horticultural and Herbal Science. "We will strengthen technical support so that this translates into more export destinations and lower logistics costs."