There are certain things that should be considered when you decide to export agricultural products to Europe. The import of agricultural products to Europe is quite limited due to the temperature and climatic conditions there, which is not favourable to agricultural products. Few of the major imported agriculture products to Europe are Cocoa, tea, spices, soya-bean products, cotton, off-season fruits, vegetables, and coffee. Thus, the European Union gives huge credit to the farming sectors that are involved in agricultural trade with Europe from all over the world.
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Considering the financial strength and deficit of arable land in Europe, agricultural trade with Europe is a golden opportunity for many developing countries. In the data published by Eurostat in 2017, the total value of agriculture products imports and exports between the world and Europe was 275 billion euros. 

However, there are few things to speculate while exporting agricultural products to Europe, mentioned below.

1. Common Agricultural Products Exported to Europe:&nbsp; European agricultural production includes products such as vegetables, grains, fruits, and sugar. A major part of the agricultural products is exported to Europe, which includes dairy products, poultry, fruit, vegetables, and olive. In the data published by Eurostat in 2017, the total value of agriculture products imports and exports between the world and Europe was 275 billion euros.

2. Quality:

The first thing that you should keep in mind is the quality of agriculture products due to the consciousness of the people regarding their healthy eating habits. In 2017, the Vegetables were a major part of agriculture imports to Europe, which was around 48 percent. Foodstuffs and animal agricultural imports were 32 percent and 20 percent respectively. EU food law requires that the competent authority of the exporting country offers guarantees as to the compliance or equivalence with EU requirements for the food of animal origin. The authorities are present to make sure that the third countries should maintain the operational criteria put forward by the European Union, especially Regulation number 882/2004.<a href="https://cogoport.com/signup/en-IN/?utm_source=web&amp;utm_medium=blog&amp;utm_campaign=general" target="_blank"><img src="https://cdn.cogoport.io/cms-prod/cogo_public/vault/original/Blog-Banner-Portal-2.png" width="auto" style="width: auto; height: auto;"></a>3. Importance of Logo:&nbsp; You should keep in mind that the organic agricultural products you want to export to Europe should be produced along with a certified logo. It can be made clear from the fact that people of Europe buy 95 percent of the organic products that have an organic farming logo.

4. Demand in different regions&nbsp;:The places where the consumption of vegetables and agricultural products is more should be targeted, when exporting to Europe. According to FAO data, the vegetable supply is quite high in Southern Europe as compared to Northern Europe. In Northern Europe, the average supply is 195 g per person per day, which is 71 kg per person per year. However, in southern Europe, there is an average supply of 756 g per person per day. The place is to be researched before beginning with the exporting process as the WHO estimates that in more than half of the countries of the European Region, the consumption of fruit and vegetables is lower than 400 grams per day, and in one-third of the countries of the European region, the consumption is less than 300 grams per day.

5. Rules and Regulations:&nbsp;The European health certification and Accreditation Requirements are critical to the success of your export business. Regulation (EC) 178/2002 (General Food Law) is the regulation which sets out the general principles and requirements of European Union food law Health certifications are necessary for the import of agriculture products. Additionally, the quality certificates are also as necessary for marketing the products under a specific label. The establishment of EU rules and standards in the food and the agriculture sector has been happening in Europe for a long period of time. However, in January 2002, changed the scenario and the publication of a general food law took place in which general principles of EU food and agriculture law were established.
6. Importance of Research:

Before exporting, thorough research is necessary about the customer preferences in regards to agriculture products. The most exported items include foodstuff, beverages, and spirits together estimating around 39 % of the products, which has a value of around 31 billion euros. Products registered under chapter 23 estimate around 23 % of foodstuff imports, which has a value of 10 billion euros.
7. Competition in the Market:&nbsp;The competitiveness of the target market is a vital factor to be considered when you think about exporting your product. More than 500 million consumers and 21 million small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) can provide opportunities to grow and establish you in the competitive market. 16% of the world’s imports and exports are shared by the members of the European Union.<img src="https://cdn.cogoport.io/cms-prod/cogo_public/vault/original/Blog Banner WA 1.png" width="auto" style="width: auto; height: auto;">8. Study of Models related to the export of agriculture products:

The model proposed by the International Plant Protection Convention should be studied thoroughly and followed while exporting the agricultural products to Europe. European Union has only one model certificate for exports and one model certificate for re-exports of plant products in accordance with international regulations laid out by the IPPC.
9. Packaging Policies:

The packaging and production laws proposed by the Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) should also be kept into consideration, otherwise, the EU health certificate will not be granted to the product, and it might get banned from the European market. The method to obtain an EU Health Certificate requires the manufacturers to provide their final production and packing facility registered on the FDA Dairy Plant Reference List of EU approved facilities. There are certain certificates such as dairy EU storage, EU raw milk product health, and dairy EU transit.10. MRLs:

The European Union has established maximum residue levels (MRLs) in order to prevent the risk possessed by pesticides on food products. In case any product contains more pesticides than the mentioned number, then that product will be banned from the European market. It should be kept in mind that European buyers are strict in this aspect and they need information about the pesticides so that health standards can be maintained. 33 to 70 per cent of the supermarket chains ask for legal MRLs from the exporters.

<h3>What Does This Mean?
</h3>
While Exporting Agricultural Products to Europe, it becomes vital to look at the different rules and regulations set up by the European Union regarding agricultural products consumed in Europe. The market analysis and market trends of Europe should also be kept in mind along with the demand and taste of the European people.

Exporting Agri Products to Europe: 10 Key Points

Developing a great website is the first step of creating an amazing online presence. Once the website is up and running it needs traffic, and the only way to achieve it is to have a top-notch Search Engine Optimization (SEO) in place. SEO is a perfect blend of art and technology to boost the organic traffic of the website so that it is visible on the Search Engine Result Page (SERP). A company’s website is the only visual representation of the company, which helps in gaining traction from consumers who are in need of its services- the only way to achieve this is to increase traffic by deploying various methods to make sure that the website is user-friendly while maintaining good response time.<a href="https://api.whatsapp.com/message/N4CI7UNDFE2ZM1?autoload=1&amp;app_absent=0&amp;utm_source=web&amp;utm_medium=blog&amp;utm_campaign=general" target="_blank"><img src="https://cdn.cogoport.io/cms-prod/cogo_public/vault/original/Blog Banner WA 1.png" width="auto" style="width: auto; height: auto;"></a>We, at Cogoport, know the importance of having a good SEO score, and use a plethora of methods to make sure, a user who searches for certain keywords, lands on our website. How are we able to achieve the perfect blend of website traffic and user-experience? We have incorporated industry-leading strategies to make www.cogoport.com a best-in-class marketplace for freight.<h3>Proper HTML Structure</h3>Every web developer dreads a website which lacks basic HTML structure and has innumerable errors. An improper structure opens countless pathways for page load errors and broken links. Also, Google’s crawlers pay no heed to a website which lacks structure. Therefore, the entire Cogoport website is written using semantic markup, meaning all the pages have a proper ‘header’, ‘main’, ‘nav’, ‘article’, ‘section’, ‘aside’, ‘address’ and ‘footer’. This has enabled us to score a high page rank score.<a href="https://cogoport.com/signup/en-IN/?utm_source=web&amp;utm_medium=blog&amp;utm_campaign=general" target="_blank"><img src="https://cdn.cogoport.io/cms-prod/cogo_public/vault/original/Blog-Banner-Portal-3.png" width="auto" style="width: auto; height: auto;"></a><h3>Crisp Content</h3>Without a crisp and tailored content, any website is a mere template, and in no way serves the purpose of a platform that a user understands. Our team has created an ironclad SEO-friendly content guideline, which enables us to ease the process for our customers through our high-quality content. A user, who lands on our website easily finds the desired service- this improves our bounce rate and results in a 100% conversion. A high-quality SEO-friendly website contains quality keywords, optimized article length, and a good Page Load Speed.<h3>Meta Tags</h3>Meta Tags are snippets of the text available on the website, they don’t appear on the page itself, but are displayed when the webpage is shown on the search engine page. They provide information to the user about the website’s description. <h3>Canonical Tags</h3>A canonical tag specifies the source URL of a page to a search engine (such as Google). The idea is to declare a single page as its own source or for duplicate pages to reference their source or originating page in order to attain proper indexing. Suppose a single company owns multiple domains, all of them having the same content, Google’s crawlers may mark it as plagiarised- to avoid this we add a canonical tag in the code, letting Google’s crawlers know that all domains belong to a single website.<a href="https://api.whatsapp.com/message/N4CI7UNDFE2ZM1?autoload=1&amp;app_absent=0&amp;utm_source=web&amp;utm_medium=blog&amp;utm_campaign=general" target="_blank"><img src="https://cdn.cogoport.io/cms-prod/cogo_public/vault/original/Blog Banner WA 2.png" width="auto" style="width: auto; height: auto;"></a><h3>Server-side Rendering</h3>Cogoport developers have successfully implemented Server-Side Rendering (SSR) on the website. SSR is a popular technique for rendering a client-side only Single Page App (SPA) on the server and sending a fully rendered page to the client. SSR helps in performing well on devices which have minimum processing power, as the server sends a fully loaded app to the device. SSR allows faster page load speed for our website, which is essential for improving user experience.

Cogoport and SEO - A Perfect Blend

Chinese New Year (CNY) is a Chinese festival that designates the beginning of New Year for the Chinese people as per the traditional Chinese calendar. It is so renowned because it marks the beginning of a lunar new year. The trading between China and the rest of the world is momentously affected during the time of New Year due to celebrations in china.
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## 1. Impact on Transportation

Road Transportation to and from Ports will be motionless during the time of the Chinese new year, which can have a direct impact on the shipping activities of products and goods. You may not be able to get your shipment before one or two weeks of the Chinese new year. It is a strong possibility that the shipment will not move forward and will stay where it is, for at least two weeks after the Chinese New Year. In the recent past, it has been witnessed that some of the road transport shipping services are kept open during the New Years’ time. However, even those are ineffective in making the shipments reach their destination within the deadline. All of this accumulates and affect the freight rate such that it might double.

## 2. Decrease in the Efficiency of Chinese Freight Forwarders companies

Chinese Freight Forwarders companies will not operate at their usual pace over the New Year period. All the ports of china will be busy and congested due to the arrival of the previous orders in the weeks before and after the Chinese New Year. Not only the road transport system but also the airports will be flooded up with large demands of shipping of cargo. The last-minute orders, mainly those orders which will be placed in January, might not be shipped on time. Even if the orders will be shipped, the issue of quality will be associated with them.
## 3. Impact on Customer Authorities

Customs Clearance at Chinese Ports and Airports will give rise to major issues in the shipping of the products. The customs authorities have a role in the import and export of products. Usually, the customs authorities go for shorter breakers of two to three days during the Chinese New Year. However, even that break can increase the processing time drastically.<a href="https://cogoport.com/signup/en-IN/?utm_source=web&amp;utm_medium=blog&amp;utm_campaign=general" target="_blank"><img src="https://cdn.cogoport.io/cms-prod/cogo_public/vault/original/Blog-Banner-Portal-3.png" width="auto" style="width: auto; height: auto;"></a>
## 4. Impact on Production

It is not at all astonishing that the production is halted one or two weeks before the Chinese New Years' Eve as most workers leave for holidays to visit their families. If the workers will not be available then the mass production of goods in factories will not take place. The businesses can be obstructed greatly as even the sample orders will not be produced during the Chinese New Year. The shipping of products will also get affected because the situation will not be in the control of even the supplier. In addition to this, the subcontractors will also be at a standstill around a week before the Chinese New Year.

## 5. Impact of long-lasting holidays

The Chinese New Year will cause further delays as the production will also be paused for a minimum of two weeks after it will be over. Astonishingly, the official holidays last only for one week after the New Year, but since this is the only holiday the workers get to visit their loved ones, they usually extend their holidays by a week or two. The main reason behind the slow supply is the shortage of production due to the absence of workers. Due to the deficiency of workers, sometimes the work is even halted for three weeks after the New Year.

## 6. Number of Workers Reduce after the New year Holidays

Getting operations back to normal will take up to a month or more because certain workers do not even return to their prior organisations and employers, and tend to quit or change jobs without giving any official notice, or making any prior announcement. The shortage of workers affects the business in a negative way. Due to the less number of workers, the shipping will be disrupted in the Chinese market. It becomes really hectic for employers and organisations to find skilled and trained workers. As a consequence, they look for new workers and they have to invest cost and time in making the employees comprehend their job. Due to change of workers, the risk of quality issues will be at its threshold. This could lead to a shortage in the number of orders and indirectly affect the shipping process also. The Chinese New Year officially lasts for one week but there will be a large number of factories and businesses that will be shut down for about 10 days before the New Year to give enough time for their employees to travel.<img src="https://cdn.cogoport.io/cms-prod/cogo_public/vault/original/Blog Banner WA 3.png" alt="" width="300px">

## 7. Difficulty in Placing of New Orders

The placing of new orders will also be difficult, sometimes the orders cannot be placed as most of the factories, and businesses will be completely shut down a week before the New Year. As many of the suppliers and businesses will stop accepting orders, it will become intolerable to place the order at the desired time. Furthermore, the delivery and shipping process will take even more time to reach the destination. Some of the suppliers will accept the orders even during the New Year time; however, they can confront a shortage of products and services. Around 80 million workers travelled by road, train, and plane back to their hometowns during the Chinese new year in 2015. In the late 1970s, economic reforms were responsible for the growth seen in Shenzhen, Xiamen, and Zhuhai.

## 8. Lack of Backup Suppliers

Chinese New Year will also make it problematic for the people to find backup suppliers as almost all the suppliers present in China will not be active during that period. If you operate in some other country and you need goods from the supplier in China in order to manufacture your products, then you might have to slow down or stop your production activities. Chinese New Year will also impact the quality of the products and goods. This is because the quality check management will also be going to their hometowns during that period. In the absenteeism of the quality check manager, the risk of delayed shipment due to bad quality or imperfect goods will upsurge.

Ways Chinese New Year Will Impact Freight Rates

Shipping is an important and critical part of the global supply chain. How it is managed impacts the marketability of the product, brand image, relations with buyers, and the profit margin of the exporter.
Ocean freight rate, ancillary logistics costs, and end-to-end management of the shipment from pick up to delivery at the final destination become deciding factors in successfully delivering a shipment to its final destination.
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<h3>Why is the Ocean Freight Rate Important?</h3>
Transportation costs are a vital component of the complete cost of taking the product to market. Ocean freight rate is an integral part of the aggregate transport cost.
Although an estimated ocean freight rate is built into the product manufacturing costs, given its volatile nature and impact of currency exchange rates, it keeps changing frequently. When the actual shipment is delivered at a rate higher than estimates taken into account, it reduces the profit margin of the exporter.
This is why procuring freight rate at the right time and from the right service provider is an important part of the entire global supply chain.
Till recently, to ensure that they get the best possible freight rate, exporters would initiate the freight rate enquiry, negotiations, and procurement at least a month prior to the shipping date. The more conservative shippers would start the process as soon as their sales order was approved by the buyer.
Shippers with large annual volumes have the scope to negotiate a volume rate with their freight forwarders or shipping lines, thus they can, to an extent, safeguard their business against unforeseen changes in freight and currency exchange rates.
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Unfortunately, the low volume exporters or new exporters cannot avail of contracted ocean freight rates.
<h3>What&rsquo;s Wrong with the Traditional Way of Booking Freight and Managing Shipments?</h3>
The archaic way of buying freight involved interaction and follow up with least 3 &ndash; 4 shipping lines and freight forwarders for rates. To successfully manage shipment delivery till its final destination, an exporter also had to invest time and effort coordinating with his inland transport provider (trucker), customs house agent, bank, and insurance agent.
Not only was this process tedious but it also required a dedicated resource (sometimes an entire team) to manage the complete logistics of transporting cargo from one point to another. Human errors and communication gaps between various process - service stakeholders further slowed down the process.&nbsp;
<img class="center" style="color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.439216); font-family: 'Open Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 25px; letter-spacing: -0.02em;" src="https://prod-cogoport.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/fd6324a8675d27be6a05d8a309256687/Blog%20creative_Tech%20savy_R3-01.png" alt="Traditional Freight Booking Process" width="">
<h3>How is the Age-old Process Changing?</h3>
With technology taking over the traditional way of obtaining freight rates, getting a competitive ocean freight rate from different service providers has become easier, cost and time effective.
Advancements in technology has made it possible for exporters and importers to obtain rates within a matter of minutes from the comfort of their offices. Technology has also facilitated the current industry drive on integrating the different touch points of the global shipping process. Today, it has become possible for all the participants in the long drawn process of global shipping to connect on a single platform and perform their role in the business.
Apart from speed and process integration, the technological revolution in the freight industry has added efficiency and transparency to the entire freight booking and management process.
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<h3>How is Cogoport Simplifying Freight Booking and Shipment Management?</h3>
Being the frontrunner of the technological revolution in the Indian freight industry, Cogoport is working on eliminating the many redundancies and inefficiencies plaguing the freight booking and shipment management ecosystem.
By integrating all the stakeholders involved in the end-to-end shipping process, Cogoport is simplifying freight management and creating an industry environment that is based on trust, transparency,&nbsp;and reliability&nbsp;with speed&nbsp;enabling informed&nbsp;and faster&nbsp;decision making.
It has brought together all the touch points of an international shipping transaction. On the platform, shippers can connect with shipping lines, freight forwarders, truckers, insurance agents, and CHAs. They can obtain rate quotes, place bookings, and track the shipment till its final delivery in real time.
Knowing how time consuming follow up with the multiple stakeholders is, the platform has, to an extent, automated most of the freight management process and empowered the user to search, select vendors, place the booking and track it real time.
<img class="center" src="https://prod-cogoport.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/4ff7b2dd335da693a1cbd19415ffc8da/Blog%20creative_Tech%20savy_R3-02.png" alt="Cogoport Process" width="">
<h3>Salient Features of Booking and Managing Freight on Cogoport</h3>
1. Personalised Dashboard:&nbsp;Create&nbsp;your own integrated global logistics management dashboard to connect all the touch points in your global supply chain.
2. Instant Rates:&nbsp;Get freight rate quotes from multiple shipping lines in a few simple steps.
3. Vessel Schedules:&nbsp;Access the sailing schedules of more than 30 shipping lines in one easy click.
4. Container Tracking:&nbsp;Track your container in real time till it reaches its final destination.
5. Document Wallet:&nbsp;Get&nbsp;your personal digital space to maintain all your shipping documents.
6. Digital Invoicing:&nbsp;Receive, manage, and pay your shipping invoices digitally.
7. Analytics:&nbsp;Get access to market driven freight rate trends and your shipment stats all at one place.
8. RFQs:&nbsp;If you don&rsquo;t find spot rate for your port pair, you can raise a request for a rate quote. Cogoport will do the rest!
To better understand how Cogoport can optimise your international shipping process,&nbsp;<a href="https://cogoport.com/signup">register</a>&nbsp;on the platform and explore the features yourself. Or connect with our customer success team to get an overview of Cogoport&rsquo;s services and products. Go Digital, Go Cogoport!

Manage Exports and Get Rates easily: Cogoport

This article was published in Maritime Delta
Source: <a href="https://www.maritimedelta.nl/blogdoorglinokarjadi/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">https://www.maritimedelta.nl/blogdoorglinokarjadi/</a>
First of all, I would like to thank Maritime Delta for giving me the opportunity to write about my experiences so far in the Maritime Industry.
As a villager from Hoogezand-Sappemeer I came in touch with shipping as soon as I spent some time in Rotterdam. It didn&rsquo;t take long to get hooked by the City and what drives its success, soccer club Feyenoord, shipping and logistics and the hard-working people of Rotterdam. My first encouter with logistics was with warehousing and trucking; I was intrigued and wanted to be part of this world even though it wasn&rsquo;t my background. I wasn&rsquo;t going to let inexperience hold me back from adventure, so I moved on to shore sea shipping and, eventually, Deepsea where I stayed for a longer period of time.
During the years I was wondering whether this Industry should change, especially when the crisis returned in 2008. My firm, Hanjin Shipping went bankrupt and the industry knew something had to change if we were to avoid losing another carrier. We avoided bankruptcies, but we saw huge consolidations; China COSCO shipping, CMA &ndash; APL and Maersk &ndash; Hamburg Sud (where I worked).
In my time with Hamburg Sud I had awesome colleagues; it was a great carrier and offered great opportunities. However, one day I met Carmit Glik and soon thereafter Flemming Frost and I was sold on their vision of digitized and simplified shipping. In particular, I got excited by the Cogoport platform, which provides a hassle-free way to search, book and track containers. It seemed to me that this was a true innovation &ndash; one which the industry had been crying out for.
At the start of April this year I signed up as one of the first European team members and it has been a fantastic experience so far joining such a dynamically fast-growing business. The company has grown in the space of just a couple of years from handling about three units a month to now close to 10,000 units and with more than 27,000 registered users on our platform.
What drives Cogoport is a passion for the needs of SMEs and a desire to see them grow. It&rsquo;s a genuine part of our DNA. As we grow we&rsquo;re learning more every day; digitization is a new journey for the industry and it&rsquo;s full of challenges.
Shipping and logistics is an important industry and like everything else, is subject to change. Digitization means that the pressure for change is coming from the outside as much as internally. It&rsquo;s happening at a pace many people in the industry can&rsquo;t yet see. For example, a few years ago, no one saw the disruption that technology was going to bring to retailing. Our industry is only beginning to see the impact of new tools but how ready is the average freight forwarder or shipper to take advantage of the opportunities they bring?
At Cogoport we are starting to build a community with our customers and the wider shipping ecosystem to take the leap into a new digital era. Few SME&rsquo;s can make major capital investments or spend time figuring out how their business model need to develop and our platform offers an easy route to better shipping. We can help!
My name is Glino Karjadi and if you want to know more about us, we are happy to help, either in a personal meeting or at one of our network lunch meetings held across the Netherlands.
Business Development &amp; Sales
<a style="color: rgb(16, 155, 197);" href="mailto:Glino@cogoport.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Glino@cogoport.com</a>
+31 6 139 21179
<a style="color: rgb(16, 155, 197);" href="https://cogoport.com/signup" target="_blank" rel="noopener">www.cogoport.com</a>

 Glino Karjadi: Digitalisation in Shipping

Online market has made our lives easier than ever before. Online platforms offer everything from electronics, apparel, food to services such as healthcare, beauty, domestic needs etc., at the ease of your doorstep. It has become common for people of all age groups and backgrounds to use mobile applications and websites to satisfy their daily needs and cravings.
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However, there is a sector which still remains unorganized and to a great extent, offline. The freight industry is huge and in most of the countries, the potential of this industry is still untapped. Making it an online marketplace could make the lives of vehicle owners and transporters easier by providing them a platform to connect with their potential customers and businesses directly to avail their services.
A slower rate of digital adoption by the Logistics industry brings in enormous risk even for the bigger players in the business. Over the next few years, the essential concern will be the race to build a dominant global platform that would determine the winners and losers in the truly digital freight industry.&nbsp;It would also mean letting smaller companies to have a global reach and to compete with the industry&rsquo;s established giants.
The following are the benefits that digital transformation of Logistics industry would bring about to the business as well as social and environmental aspects.
<ul>
<li>Digitally enabled information services puts data at the heart of the Logistics business with the help of initiatives like analytics and logistics control towers that helps in reducing the operating costs and in improving the efficiency of operations.</li>
<li>Digital adoption of freight industry will help in trade growth by creating digitally enhanced cross-border platforms. As a result, logistics companies can satisfy the growing need of customers for same day deliveries, and promotes the concept of city logistics which will give them an entry to mega-cities.</li>
</ul>
<img style="width: auto; height: auto;" src="https://cdn.cogoport.io/cms-prod/cogo_public/vault/original/Blog-Banner-Portal-2.png" alt="blog_banner" width="auto">
<ul>
<li>Technologies such as 3D printing and Crowdsourcing offer ways to create and practice newer means to process logistics. By harnessing concepts like autonomous trucks and drones, the delivery capabilities will increase and shipments will be efficiently processed and delivered.&nbsp;&nbsp;</li>
<li>Regenerative systems will foster more sustainable product life cycle, whereby reducing the environmental footprint by this industry, as the carbon dioxide emissions and air pollution will be under control.</li>
<li>If the enterprises take the initiative to analyze big data streams, they can derive new insights that can improve the operational efficiency and enables the launch of services like &lsquo;last-mile delivery&rsquo;. This requires companies to collect data along their value chain.</li>
<li>Digital transformation brings about shared capabilities such as shared warehouses, shared transport capabilities that will increase the asset utilization and saves a lot of time and energy.&nbsp;</li>
<li>Retailers get better insights about their customers through digital touch points. It also enhances the visibility of shipments that are both internally and externally sourced.</li>
</ul>
Industry stakeholders should take notice of the benefits and come together to prioritize digital transformation initiatives, given the potential for significantly higher value to be created for society and for the freight industry.

Freight Industry is Still Offline

As one of the fastest growing startups in digital freight, we are always looking for bright people. One of our recent hires is Saurabh, who joined the Cogoport team to help out the business development team. He wrote a blog post about working at Cogoport.<a href="https://api.whatsapp.com/message/N4CI7UNDFE2ZM1?autoload=1&amp;app_absent=0&amp;utm_source=web&amp;utm_medium=blog&amp;utm_campaign=general" target="_blank"><img src="https://cdn.cogoport.io/cms-prod/cogo_public/vault/original/Blog Banner WA 1.png" width="auto" style="width: auto; height: auto;"></a>And now over to Saurabh:Life at CogoportI have been a Cogoport intern for the past couple of weeks now, and so far, it is unlike any of my other internships or professional experiences. The learning curve is huge, but the opportunities for learning and growth are endless. I remember applying for internships and Cogoport stood out to me because it was a startup that had come up with its own unique idea and was trying to break the status quo in the enormous logistics industry. Also, I have always dreamed of having my own business and could not think of a better place to learn from. At Cogoport I am a business development intern and am tasked with bringing in new clients as my primary responsibility. My development and progress are overseen by Varun Mahendru, the Regional Business Head at Cogoport.All Together NowCogoport has a defined hierarchy, yet it does not show. The heads of various departments, employees, and interns all sit together in the office. If a stranger was to walk in then they may not be able to tell us apart. It helps promote the culture of learning and taking on responsibility. The heads lead by example, and everyone in the office has always taken initiative and followed suit.<img src="https://cdn.cogoport.io/cms-prod/cogo_public/vault/original/Blog-Banner-Portal-3.png" alt="" width="300px">New Skills for New BusinessI had always heard that start-ups are a lot more hands-on, and I’m excited to be able to experience it first-hand now. This really came to light when in my second week as an intern Drupad Goswami, who is Head of Sales at Cogoport, called in the evening informing me that we would be going to Morbi (an industrial town) to conduct a drive that would get more clients on board.Diving in at the Deep EndSo far, I had spent one day calling clients, and one day meeting them. Now, I was being thrown into the deep end and had to attract clients who could bring a lot of business to Cogoport. As I said, the opportunities to learn and grow were immense.With coaching from Drupad and Varun I had my pitch locked down after the first couple of meetings in Morbi. After conducting over 40 meetings over the course of two days, I’d managed to get 12 new clients on board. My numbers were pale in comparison to the more experienced members of the Cogoport team in Morbi, but for someone who had been a part of the company AND industry for slightly more than a week… I was proud of the result.We Have Lift-off!After returning to Ahmedabad I was feeling much more confident when reaching out to potential new clients. There was no more nervousness. I was sure in my knowledge of the platform and industry.Cogoport was able to help me in accomplishing all this in a matter of two weeks. I’m eagerly waiting to see what I can learn and (hopefully) accomplish over the next two and a half months!

Cogoport Intern: Day in the Life!

A Day in the Life of a Cogoport Intern: Experience & Learning

<h2>Our Focus</h2>Cogoport accelerates the creation of value in global supply chains, fundamentally transforming how users engage, leveraging transparency and efficiency, as witnessed by a rapidly growing number of platform users.<h2>Customer First, Always</h2>Our technology team continues to build a world-class customer experience, and in this post, I would like to introduce our latest team addition, Flemming Frost, a business veteran whose experience will support and complement our tech-savvy product- and operations teams.With more than 35 years of business experience from the transport and logistics industry, earned in senior positions during three decades at Maersk / Damco (Copenhagen, Shanghai and The Hague), and more recently at Tesla (Silicon Valley), Flemming is well positioned to make Cogoport more customer centric, listening to feedback, not only through customers’ behaviour on the platform, but also engaging face-to-face. This is critical to our continued innovation and ambition to be inclusive.Flemming highlights: “I am excited to join Cogoport and see great opportunities to further the mission in areas like:·&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Creating a global community bringing the best opportunities to all Cogoport users·&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Achieving sustainable efficiencies through deep integration·&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Unlocking value by innovating and automating end-to-end processes·&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Enabling data-driven market- and performance transparency.”<img src="https://prod-cogoport.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/8d51b2f9bb66b7c864b359771232abf6/download%20%282%29.jpeg" alt="download%20%282%29.jpeg"><h2>The Only Way is Up</h2>Cogoport is accelerating the global growth, and Flemming’s experience in managing, developing, and improving complex logistics operations and turning suppliers into partners will make a difference to all Cogoport users. As Flemming sums it up:“For all users, Cogoport a single, independent platform across transport providers, a one-stop shop where shippers have full visibility of available options and all their shipments, a platform on which they efficiently and quickly can book containers”, adding: “Carriers get real-time visibility of demand, a very low acquisition cost, especially for small and medium-sized customers, as well as a lower cost to operate such business. Combined, this enables carriers to optimize their positioning in each trade.”Reflecting back on his years in the industry, Flemming adds:“I wish I had this platform at my disposal for the past 35 years!”.Naturally, we won’t argue with him.<h2>Welcome on Board</h2>In short, I’m happy to announce that Flemming Frost is our new President of Supplier Relations &amp; International Growth. He will work to further develop our partnerships with carriers and other suppliers, and to further our mission to simplify freight.Go team!

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