Going all the way for an agricultural company who goes all the way

The Background

Nava started out as an agriculture company that cleverly combined Italy’s Mediterranean climate, biodiversity, and its favourable agronomic conditions to grow high-quality grapes. In 2001, their passion to share Italy’s premium produce with the world led them to become the prominent trader that they are today. And why not? Italy is strategically located with access to major world markets.

Their initial years were spent successfully trading their much-loved grapes with markets in Eastern Europe where they’ve made a big name for themselves in the Fruit and Vegetables sector. Success in these markets soon ushered in an expansion into trading kiwi, peaches, nectarines, citrus fruits, and vegetables with the whole world including countries in Europe, Africa, America, and Asia.

As an ocean partner of Nava’s for the last 15 years, we know that for them their customer is king. They hold themselves to the highest standards with respect to the quality of the fruits and vegetables they deliver; the reliability and efficiency with which they deliver them; and how responsive they are to market changes.

At the same time, Nava is ambitious about its own business goals and strives to constantly diversify its offering and reach new markets. So, when they decided to extend their partnership with us beyond ocean to take their grapes to the USA, we knew it wasn’t going to be easy.

The Challenge

Nava is a pioneer in the Cold Treatment of grapes traveling to the USA. To reap the many benefits of Cold Treatment, however, controlling the humidity inside the container is critical. Small deviations from the set values can have a big impact on the quality of the cargo – a risk that Nava wanted to avoid at all costs, on land, water, and even at customs.

To monitor the precision of conditions inside their containers, from the South of Italy to the USA, Nava had to make a choice. Invest in more logistics personnel OR focus on what they do best – growing and selling high quality fruits and vegetables.

This is when they turned to us.

The Solution

Nava needed to enable growth using its supply chain without turning into a logistics expert themselves. To help them do this, we custom-created a solution that met their specific requirements. Today, the solution includes inland and customs clearance services in Italy, in addition to our ocean solution.

Expertise and Efficiency

Cold Treatment containers need to be monitored closely in order to ensure that the recommended conditions and the quality of the cargo is preserved. Nava wanted the assurance that they could consult instantly with both our customer support and our experts at any time. To make this possible, our Reefer team in Italy has gone all the way to restructure itself so that a Maersk team is always available to Nava when they need us.

Additionally, we’ve taken administrative and operational responsibilities off their shoulders so that they can focus on the strategic aspects of their business. All Nava has to do is keep in touch with our single point of contact. This single point of contact is not just allocated for one route, but across their global supply chain that has now grown to export out of Australia as well.

Quality and Reliability

Once the journey begins, our teams are backed by technology and data so that they can help Nava take informed decisions. Captain Peter, our virtual Remote Container Management assistant, provides them with live access to data regarding their Cold Treatment containers. If conditions deviate from the set values, they are notified immediately, and our team proactively investigates and resolves the issue.

Captain Peter’s real time data and 24/7 interaction feature allow Nava to make business decisions on the go. For instance, if a market situation changes, they can choose to re-direct their sensitive cargo to a different destination while in transit. Such responsiveness is extremely important to Nava as it is one of their key promises to their customers.

The Results

Working with us over the last year has helped Nava in many ways. They are now able to provide their customers the assurance of quality and on-time delivery with greater confidence. So much so that their customers are willing to pay higher-than-market prices for their produce. By taking the load of logistics off them, with one price, one invoice, and one point of contact, we’ve helped them cut logistics costs immensely. Further, by focusing on their business ambitions, they’ve been able to expand their exports. They now move 20% more exports with us including apples to India and kiwis to the USA.

Our partnership with Nava has always been fruitful. With our new and innovative logistics solutions, we hope to consistently take it to new levels.