You would think there was enough time to assess and anticipate the impact of Brexit on international trade. Nothing turns out to be further from the truth. Dutch companies have the most significant difficulty importing products, and we are not just talking about products coming from the United Kingdom. As a result of the Brexit troubles, Dutch customs cannot cope with document processing, which means that there is a huge backlog at the moment. As a result, a large part of the imported goods remains at the customs locations. Not a few days, but a few weeks. The economic impact is great.

Various cold chain solutions are available that offer protection during both storage and transport. Temperature loggers, track & trace, Thermo boxes and online temperature monitoring are some of these solutions where resources are available that are also explicitly intended for the storage and distribution of vaccines. It is essential only to use high-quality solutions that provide the protection required to ensure patient safety. These solutions are usually offered by renowned brands that often also have the correct certifications.

Have you ever had a shipment lost or delayed? Without knowing exactly where it went wrong, and why? Do you sometimes need to know exactly where your goods are and in what condition they are? Praxas has launched a new track & trace system that can offer this complete chain transparency. Insight into the chain from A to Z, with mobile trackers that are connected to a cloud-based software platform.

The development of the Covid-19 vaccine is just the first step in the fight against the pandemic. Next is distribution. A wide variety of vaccines will be distributed around the world in the coming months. This presents a major challenge for the logistics world. Solving this puzzle is the subject of the online Air Freight Conference on December 17th and 18th.

Where most employees are used to receiving a Christmas gift personally, this will be different this year. The corona measures ensure that many people work from home whenever possible. Employers who want to give their employees a Christmas gift will probably have to send it. But how do they ensure that the package arrives at the recipient without damage, while retaining quality?

3.5 million tons of pharmaceuticals per year are transported by ship, 0.5 million tons per year by air. Although the majority of the drugs were produced in Europe, America and Japan 20 years ago, today, China and India are the leading suppliers. The main reason for this is that pharmaceutical companies were no longer able to make large profits because of too small margins. Producing in a country with low production and labour costs seemed the solution. Unfortunately, this method has been causing problems in recent years, with the current corona crisis as the lowest point.

Today is the International Polar Bear Day. This has been organised annually since 2011 on 27 February to draw attention to the habitat of the polar bear. It is of vital importance to become aware of the impact that global warming and sea ice has on polar bears. For that reason, attention is requested to find ways that could reduce CO2 emissions.

For many a day to celebrate love, give each other gifts, cards and flowers, for some, it’s a real commercial thing. No matter how we think about this day, 14 February is worldwide known as Valentine’s day.  This is one of the most import days in the flower industry. The weeks before Valentine’s day are hectic days at the flower auction, because during these weeks there will be sold twice as many flowers than in an average week. The role of the Netherlands in flower export is enormous, especially at days like these, so where does that leave us? 

Chinese New Year, also known as the Spring Festival, is China’s most important holiday and this year it takes place on January 25. Everything is standing still around this date, and for that reason, this will cause the necessary production and transport problems.

National Tulip Day is on January 18. Not surprisingly, this flower has been given its own day, because like mills and clogs, tulips are inextricably linked to the Netherlands. These beautiful spring flowers, found on many bulb fields in our little country, are in the top 10 of Dutch export products; almost 2.5 billion tulip bulbs are exported abroad every year. But not without a struggle. Because how do we ensure that our tulips end up in the vase of good quality anywhere in the world?