On arrival
The load did not travel at the agreed temperature
Start with the paperwork, not the fruit. No treaty fixes a transit temperature for fresh citrus, so the figure exists only where the order, the specification or the carrier's instructions put it. Where the vehicle was equipped to control temperature, the carriage rules make it harder for a carrier to blame the nature of the goods.
The figures
| Source of the figure | The sales contract, the specification or the transport instructions. There is no statutory setpoint for fresh citrus |
|---|---|
| ATP agreement on perishable foodstuffs | Covers quick-frozen and listed chilled foodstuffs. Fresh fruit is not among them |
| Equipped vehicles under the carriage rules | The carrier cannot invoke the nature of the goods unless he proves the equipment was chosen, maintained and used properly and the instructions followed (CMR, article 18.4) |
| Transport temperature on our fruit | Not confirmed with the grower |
What it changes on an order
You buy on delivered terms
The carrier is the seller's contractor, not yours, and the instructions he received are not a document you hold. Ask for the setpoint in writing at the point of order, because afterwards you are asking for someone else's correspondence.
You run long road legs
The risk on a two day run is not the average, it is the hours at the extremes. A trace with timestamps shows those hours. A single reading handed over at the tailgate does not show anything at all.
Your customer audits cold chain
Retail and food service approval schemes ask for records, not assurances. If the trace has to exist for your own audit, that requirement belongs in the order rather than in an email after the first delivery.
What this note does not settle
- This explains where a temperature obligation comes from and what the carriage rules do with it. It is not advice on liability, and it does not tell you whether any load was carried properly.
- A recorder reports the air around it. Pulp temperature inside a stacked pallet behaves differently, and the two get quoted against each other in disputes.
- We have no confirmed transport temperature, no confirmed incoterms and no carrier arrangement. Anything on this page about our own loads is unsettled.
Source: Convention on the Contract for the International Carriage of Goods by Road (CMR), ATP Agreement on the International Carriage of Perishable Foodstuffs
No treaty fixes a number for oranges
Buyers sometimes assume there is an official setpoint for citrus in transit, the way there is for frozen goods. There is not. The temperature on a citrus load is whatever the sale agreed, which means the only place it exists is the order, the specification or the carrier's instructions. If none of those has a figure on it, nobody has been given a target to miss.
That is the first thing to check before anything else. Not the recorder, not the fruit: the paperwork. A dispute about a setpoint that was never written down is a dispute nobody wins.
What a reefer changes about the argument
Fresh produce carries its own risk in transit, and a carrier is entitled to point at the nature of the goods when fruit arrives in poor condition. Once the vehicle is equipped to control temperature, that defence gets harder to run. The equipment has to have been chosen, maintained and used properly, and the instructions have to have been followed.
Practically, that puts the weight on the trace rather than on the fruit. Ask for the recorder download while the vehicle is still on site, and ask for it as a file with times on it rather than a photograph of a display. A display shows the temperature now. The file shows the night the unit was switched off.
Talk to the grower
Tell us the variety, the sizes and the delivery week you need. You get a delivered price and what we can commit to in writing, from the person who picks the fruit.
The grower handles enquiries. Response times are still to be confirmed.