Nippon Express Italia S.p.A. (Arnaldo Vivoli, President; hereinafter, "NX Italy"), a Group company of Nippon Express Holdings, Inc. (Mitsuru Saito, President), provided across-the-board support for the transport of blood oranges from the Italian island of Sicily to Japan at the request of Unifrutti Corporation, which cultivates, transports, processes and distributes bananas, grapes and other fruit entirely in-house.
Sicilian blood oranges have been unavailable in Japan for more than a decade due to quarantine reasons, but imports to Japan have now resumed after discussions between the Japanese and Italian governments. NX Italy completed its first Japan-bound shipment of these rare Sicilian blood oranges, the sweetest variety, through close cooperation with Nippon Express Co., Ltd., and other NX Group companies.
Shipped by air from Italy, the blood oranges arrived in Japan on April 26 and were subsequently delivered to customers after quarantine and customs clearance procedures had been successfully completed.
To celebrate the first shipment after the resumption of imports, a ceremony was held at the Tokyo Food Terminal of Nippon Express' Tokyo Shipping Branch and attended by President Kennard Wong of Unifrutti Japan Corporation, First Secretary Rossella Spera of the Italian Embassy and Managing Executive Officer Atsushi Nagashima of Nippon Express.
The NX Group, believing that logistics serves as a driving force for enriching society, will continue marshaling the Group's networks and functions to provide optimal logistics services that satisfy the wishes of customers seeking to create a new future.
