Led by Jim Bellinder, Vice President, Cargo Sales Americas, United Cargo is sending a clear and concise message to the seafood community gathered in Boston this week:
     “We want your business, and we have everything it takes to provide the specialized service you need.”
     “United has been in the seafood shipping business a long time, and we execute proven processes that put the emphasis on speed and consistent quality handling.
     “We have the sales expertise, the consistent quality handling processes, the routes, and the capacity to provide the service you need for these products. In addition, we value your business and each shipment you entrust to us.”

Nothing Taken For Granted

“While the carriage of fresh and frozen fish has long been one of the core elements of United Cargo’s business, we never take it for granted. In the Northeast part of the U.S., in Boston in particular, every United Cargo employee is acutely aware of the importance of our seafood shippers. But this mindset has also taken hold in many other cities and regions.
“Looking to the future of seafood shipping, we expect that United Cargo’s share of the international seafood shipping business will continue to grow. United’s increasing presence in Asia provides us many opportunities to serve that expanding market. This is a great complement to our longtime strength in domestic seafood shipping.”


Step By Step

“Since speed is of the utmost importance, we keep our processes as simple as we can, while ensuring that security requirements are met and the packaging will keep the product viable to its destination. We use a standard seafood shipment checklist, which ensures that quality acceptance standards are maintained worldwide. We also make sure that everyone who comes into contact with the shipment at any point during its transport is trained to our quality standards. Our training emphasizes the need for the quickest processing possible and the absolute necessity of maintaining a temperature environment that supports the cargo's viability.”


Why Boston?

“United Cargo exhibited at the Boston Seafood Show in the past, and we will now support Seafood Expo North America, because it’s the largest and the most important seafood event in North America. For many years, Boston has been the only seafood show we participate in.
“One reason we send a large contingent of our Sales Team to the Boston Show is to connect with a great number of our existing customers face to face. The show also represents a wonderful opportunity to discuss the services we can offer with potential new customers from all over the globe. We don’t directly book shipments at the show, but we see a connection between the contacts we make and the new seafood-related accounts we gain. If our presence at the Boston show wasn’t contributing to our business, we wouldn’t come back year after year after year.”


A-Team Front & Center

“Because we recognize the importance of Seafood Expo North America, United Cargo will be represented by an experienced team from all over our system. I will be there, along with Kevin Romer, United Cargo’s senior regional sales manager of the North Region and Adam Cooper, senior regional sales manager of the West Region. Our international contingent will include Andres Bolanos Riesen, account executive from Panama; Carlos Medrano, account executive from Argentina, and Diego Subia, account executive from Ecuador. Joining them will be cargo sales account executives from our U.S. North and West Regions: John Curran, Joe Heinz, Maria Jones, Nancy Muramoto, and Marcel Smith.”
(Geoffrey)

     They Got The Seafood Mama—Seafood Expo North America and Seafood Processing North America launches its annual show at the Boston Convention & Exhibition Center in Boston, Massachusetts (March 15-17, 2015), it proves once again to be one of the best annual shows for business leads, business decisions, and just plain fun, hosting more than 19,000 visitors and 1,000 exhibits from more than 100 countries.
     Seafood Expo is wall-to-wall with decision-makers from all levels of the food chain.
     There are manufacturers, retailers, wholesalers, shipping experts, and container manufacturers by the score everywhere at Seafood Expo.
     But in addition to meeting up with guys in air cargo perishables everywhere from Scotland to the Cone of Chile, Seafood Expo exhibitors offer up samples of some of the best on-the-hoof dining imaginable. Or should we say, on the fin.
     What a scene.
     Twenty-ounce draft in one hand, skewered shrimp in the other, Zantac within reach, then back to the airplane, ready to take on the world.
     “We’ve had very positive feedback from every group involved in the show,” said Liz Plizga, show director for Diversified Business Communications, the company that produces the event.
     “The seafood community recognizes that the Seafood Expo consistently provides the most progressive and comprehensive forum for knowledge-exchange and networking.”
     “Seafood Expo is not only a show with a great history, but [it] is one of the most effective marketing tools for reaching the seafood business community,” she said.

   “This event provided an opportunity to meet with a great deal of potential customers in a very short period of time,” said Soren Kaplan, Wall Street Journal best-selling author of the book Leapfrogging.
     “The Boston Seafood Expo is always a great forum for us to generate leads and showcase our product, and we are looking forward to another great event,” said Jim Belllinder of KLM Cargo (see next story).
     A much anticpated part of the Seafood Expo is the New Product Conference, providing seafood buyers a look at the latest value-added products, new species, packaging, and services.
     A panel of industry buyers screens products based on uniqueness and appropriateness to the market and chooses several winners from various categories for the Annual Seafood Excellence Awards (SEA).
     Another nice tradition at Seafood Expo comes at the close of the show, when hundreds of exhibiting companies donate more than 20,000 pounds of fresh seafood leftover from the show, providing many thousands of meals for hungry men, women, and children throughout Eastern Massachusetts via the Greater Boston Food Bank.
     The National Fisheries Institute is the official sponsor of the Seafood Expo North America and Seafood Processing North America.

     She’s smart, she’s beautiful, and she’s also an Oyster Shucking Champion.
     Deborah Pratt began her quest for oyster shucking fame when she was a child sitting on the doorstep with her younger sister, Clementine Macon.
     The novelty of an oyster and how one goes about quickly getting it open became a lifelong obsession for both of them.
     Deborah explains the simple way she cracks into this bivalve treasure of the Rappahannock, stating:
     “If you go into the oyster at 3 o'clock, 6 o'clock and 9, you will always get in.
     “From there it’s just about how fast you get in, and how little damage you do to the fragile sea life within,” she assures.
     The titles Deborah has won are too numerous to mention, but perhaps the time she edged out her nephew by mere seconds in the 2007 Urbanna Oyster Festival (State of Virginia, U.S.A.) is among her most fond memories. That, and making the trip to Ireland a few times to compete in the world competition.