Fresh Del Monte Produce saw its shipping revenue soar thanks to rising freight demand in the first quarter, but the limited access to capacity on other operators’ ships meant the container crunch wasn’t all peachy for the fruit giant.
In a first-quarter earnings report, the Florida-based company said its line item for “net sales of other products and services” amounted to $58.2m, a 48.8% leap from the $39.1m brought in the same period of 2021.
The growth was thanks to a jump in third-party freight services.
“The company’s fleet of vessels has enabled the expansion of commercial cargo services, which are benefiting from elevated shipping rates and demand due to current supply chain constraints and inflationary pressures,” the company said.
The shipping boost helped lift gross profit from other products and services to $7.7m, a jump from $2.8m a year earlier, as gross margins rose to 13.1% from 7.3%.
Fresh Del Monte-controlled Network Shipping owns a fleet of six container ships built in 2020 and 2021, the newest of which hit the water in April of last year, in addition to six reefers.
The fruit company’s overall gross profit fell to $89.9m in the first quarter, from $105m a year earlier.
Companywide net sales rose to $1.14bn from $1.09bn, but even that wasn’t a bowl of cherries, as shipping helped prevent the figure from rising higher.
“Lack of availability of third-party shipping capacity on certain shipping routes, substantially limited the sales of various products,” the fruit giant company.
Overall, Fresh Del Monte reported net income of $24.7m, down from $41.4m in the second quarter of 2021.
