Why Dole owns container ships
flexport.com
flexport.com
* because Dole imports from the tropics which have a limited concept of seasons, so the ships rarely if ever sit unused (therefore it makes sense to own or lease)
* because Dole moves products from places way outside major shipping lanes and ports, hiring ships would be inconvenient
* even more so because Dole needs refrigerated ships making #2 worse
The benefit of a big refrigerated vessel is mostly when you have a big company importing ("importers") in huge quantities and then selling it to other companies. A single container is huge, but it is way less than a whole refrigerated vessel. Part of the reason why more bananas have been shipped in reefer containers is due to companies cutting out the importers.
Anything I can do to plug that absolutely amazing podcast...
>A half-century later, its parent company would find that it was no longer economical to own its own ships.
With bananas the local wildlife would probably be rather pleased if there was a 'banana spillage'.
Point being that there are other reasons for a ship having company logos on it.
There is usually no reason to have completely unrelated industries (especially when you depend on many companies in said industry to make your primary business function) as part of your main company, especially when, yes, as you stated, the non-related-industry sub-company will usually look for work to optimize its cash flow, ie, to not have idle assets that could be making money instead.
An example we're more use to: Amazon's AWS is a separate company that works for competitors to Amazon's other services (Netflix vs Prime Video, one of the Spotify customers (can't remember which) vs Prime Music, etc.
Bottom-line, 13 degrees centigrade is what you're aiming for along with 50 m3/h of airflow (50 cfm in US units.) Airflow because bananas ripen in the presence of ethylene and ripening bananas release ethylene. That's the reason putting bananas in a paper bag ripens them faster.
http://news.thomasnet.com/companystory/chiquita-completes-sa...
Any company could easily accommodate their needs (refer capacity, cranes, etc)even cheaper given the fact that right now the dry and container market is at the lowest point ever.
This is the era to charter a vessel and not own one.
I'm amused that the Cargo fleet has it's own twitter account.