The Freight Behind Your Food / Global Supply Chains | Ian Sutherland

The Freight Behind Your Food / Global Supply Chains | Ian Sutherland

From Fell Into Food Podcast by Jeff Fell

June 8, 2026 · 51 min · Episode 73

About this episode

Ian Sutherland discusses the intricacies of global freight and logistics in the food industry.

Ian Sutherland is the co-founder of World Freight Direct — a dedicated industry platform for global freight and logistics — and brings 55 years of combined freight experience to the table with his wife and co-founder Kath. He was back on Fell Into Food this week to talk about the thing that makes everything in your restaurant, your kitchen, and your supply chain actually move: global freight. Most people in food think about supply chains when something goes wrong. A delivery doesn't show up. A price spikes overnight. A product disappears from the shelf. Ian has spent thirty years watching what happens before that — and in this conversation, we got into it from the ground up. We covered how international freight actually works: the four modes of transport, what a bill of lading is and why it matters, how a freight forwarder functions as the connective tissue between a seller in Australia and a buyer in Chicago, and what's physically happening inside a container when equipment travels across an ocean to land at your booth at the National Restaurant Show. I walked through his own experience unloading overseas freight for the first time this year — and yes, it looks nothing like what…

People in this episode

Host: Jeff Fell

Guest: Ian Sutherland

Topics covered

Keywords

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: World Freight Direct

Products: ammonium nitrate

Places: Australia, Chicago, Ukraine, Russia, U.S., Canada, China

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