From harvest to handover
Cold Chain for Fruits: Seven Stages, One Unbroken Line
Imported fruit is a temperature product before it is a taste product. A container that spends six hours off-power on a hot apron in July cannot be rescued by anything that happened in the orchard. PR Agrifresh runs 100% temperature-controlled movement across more than 1,500 reefer containers a year, through seven connected stages from harvest to handover.
PR Agrifresh operating context.
From harvest to handover
What an unbroken cold chain actually means
An unbroken cold chain means the fruit never leaves its required temperature range between the packhouse and the buyer — not during loading, not during transhipment, not during customs clearance, not on the dock. The phrase gets used loosely. In practice it is a chain of custody where every handover has a temperature responsibility attached to it and someone is accountable for the gap.
Fruit is alive after harvest. It respires, it produces ethylene, it loses water. Cold slows all three. Every degree above the correct set point speeds up ageing, and the loss is cumulative — a break in week one is still costing shelf life in week five. That is why cold chain for fruits is measured as a continuous line rather than a series of steps.
The seven-stage journey
One continuous
line of care.
Continuous cold-chain journeyIn focus · Orchard
- 01Orchard
- 02Inspection
- 03Packing
- 04Cold storage
- 05Sea logistics
- 06Arrival
- 07Distribution
01
The seven stages
| Stage | What happens | What can go wrong |
|---|---|---|
| 01 Orchard | Harvest timed to maturity indices, fruit moved out of field heat quickly | Picking too early or too late; fruit left standing in the sun |
| 02 Inspection | Grading against agreed variety, size, count, colour and maturity specification | Off-spec fruit accepted at origin, discovered only on arrival in India |
| 03 Packing | Precooling to pull field heat out, then packing to the agreed carton and pallet format | Inadequate precooling — the single most common origin-side failure |
| 04 Cold storage | Holding at the fruit's correct temperature, with controlled atmosphere where the category calls for it | Wrong set point, mixed-commodity storage, ethylene cross-contamination |
| 05 Sea logistics | Reefer container at set point with correct ventilation and humidity, data-logged throughout | Set-point error, poor stow blocking airflow, delayed transhipment |
| 06 Arrival | Port clearance, phytosanitary and customs formalities, condition check before release | Clearance delay with the container off-power; damage found too late to claim |
| 07 Distribution | Cold storage and temperature-controlled onward movement to the buyer | The last-mile break — fruit that survived the ocean and dies in a hot truck |
02
Reefer container temperature for fruits
There is no single correct number. Every commodity has its own carrying temperature, and getting it wrong in either direction destroys the fruit — too warm and it ages, too cold and it suffers chilling injury. These are the industry reference ranges we plan against:
| Fruit | Typical carrying range | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Apples | 0 to 1°C | Often shipped or stored under controlled atmosphere for long holds |
| Pears | -0.5 to 0°C | Very sensitive to ripening once warmed |
| Table grapes | 0 to 1°C | Usually shipped with sulphur dioxide pads to control decay |
| Citrus — mandarins, oranges | 4 to 7°C | Chilling injury risk below range; varies by variety and origin |
| Grapefruit | 10 to 13°C | Notably warmer than other citrus |
| Kiwifruit | 0 to 1°C | Extremely ethylene-sensitive — must not travel with ethylene producers |
| Avocados | 5 to 7°C | Range depends on variety and intended ripening programme |
| Dragon fruit | 5 to 8°C | Chilling injury below range |
| Cherries | 0 to 1°C | The least forgiving fruit in the range; speed matters as much as temperature |
| Plums | -0.5 to 0°C | Risk of internal breakdown at intermediate temperatures |
| Wet dates | 0°C or frozen | Held very cold to protect texture and prevent fermentation |
These are published industry reference ranges, not a specification. Actual set points are agreed per consignment with the origin packhouse and the shipping line, based on variety, maturity at packing and voyage length.
03
Controlled atmosphere storage
Controlled atmosphere storage for fruits goes a step further than refrigeration. Oxygen is reduced and carbon dioxide raised inside a sealed room, which slows respiration far more than cold alone. It is what allows an apple picked in Italy in October to eat like fresh fruit the following June — and it is the single reason apples can be a genuinely year-round category.
CA is used routinely for apples and pears. It is not appropriate for every commodity, and applying it to the wrong fruit causes damage rather than preventing it.
04
Post-harvest handling
Post-harvest handling of fruits is where most avoidable loss happens, and almost all of it is at origin. Removing field heat quickly through forced-air or hydro precooling matters more than anything that happens later, because a container cannot pull heat out of a pallet — it can only hold a temperature that was already achieved.
Ethylene management is the second discipline. Kiwifruit and avocados are highly sensitive; apples and pears are strong producers. Mixing them in one cold room or one container ruins the sensitive commodity. Segregation is not optional.
05
Cold chain logistics in India
The weakest link in fresh produce logistics in India is rarely the ocean leg. It is the ground: clearance time at port, availability of plug points, the gap between de-stuffing and cold storage, and the last mile to the buyer. Fruit that held perfectly for five weeks at sea can be lost in an afternoon.
PR Agrifresh manages that ground leg rather than handing it off. Arrival condition is checked before fruit is released, storage is held at the correct temperature for the commodity, and onward temperature-controlled fruit transport moves to distributors, wholesale markets, retail chains and food-service buyers across the country.
06
Frequently asked questions
What does an unbroken cold chain mean?
It means the fruit stays within its required temperature range at every point between the origin packhouse and the buyer, including loading, transhipment, customs clearance and last-mile delivery, with accountability attached to every handover.
What temperature are fruits shipped at in a reefer container?
It depends on the commodity. Apples, pears, grapes, kiwifruit and cherries typically travel around 0 to 1°C; citrus around 4 to 7°C; grapefruit, avocados and dragon fruit warmer still. The wrong set point causes chilling injury as surely as too much heat causes ageing.
What is controlled atmosphere storage?
A sealed cold room where oxygen is lowered and carbon dioxide raised to slow the fruit's respiration well beyond what refrigeration alone achieves. It is used mainly for apples and pears and is what makes year-round apple supply possible.
Why does the cold chain matter more for imported fruit?
Because the journey is longer. Sea freight from Chile or New Zealand takes weeks, so every degree of error compounds over that period rather than being absorbed in a two-day domestic trip.
Where does most cold chain loss happen?
Two places — inadequate precooling at origin, and the ground leg after arrival. Neither is on the ocean, which is the part most people worry about.
07
Talk to us about your handling requirement
If your programme depends on arrival condition — and every serious fresh-fruit programme does — tell us the category, the volume and the delivery point.