Inherent vice in a produce cargo claim

Inherent vice is damage a cargo caused itself. The goods deteriorated because of what they were and what condition they were in, not because of anything that happened to them on the way. For perishable cargo it is the carrier’s first answer to almost every claim. It is written into both the carriage rules and the standard cargo insurance clauses, as something neither party has to pay for.

The reason it applies so readily to fruit is that fruit is alive. It respires, it ripens, and it consumes its own reserves whatever anyone does to it. A carrier arguing inherent vice is saying the consignment would have arrived in this condition however the voyage had gone. The fruit was cut too ripe, held too long before stuffing, or never brought down to temperature at all.

Why it is so hard to answer at destination #

Almost everything measured at discharge is consistent with both stories. Soft fruit, high pulp temperatures and a short remaining life look identical whether the cause was a warm load at origin or a unit that failed at sea.

What separates them is evidence captured before the doors closed: pre-cooling records, pulp temperatures at stuffing taken pallet by pallet, the packhouse quality inspection, and photographs of the stow. A clean bill of lading does not do this job. It is a receipt for the outside of the cartons and says nothing about the fruit inside them.

The container’s own record then does the other half. A log showing the unit running flat out for the first days of the voyage supports the carrier. Return air far above setpoint means the box was fighting field heat that was never its job to remove. A log showing a clean pull-down followed by a power gap at a hub supports you.

FAQ #

Is inherent vice the same as poor packing? #

No, though carriers often raise both together. Inherent vice is about the nature and condition of the goods themselves; insufficient packing is a separate defence about the boxes, liners and pallets around them. They are answered by different evidence — quality records for the first, loading photographs for the second.

Does cargo insurance cover inherent vice? #

Standard all-risks cargo clauses exclude it, in much the same terms the carriage rules use. That is not a gap in the market. It is the boundary between an insurable accident and the natural behaviour of a living product. Your pre-shipment quality file therefore matters to the insurer as much as it does to the carrier.

How do I rebut an inherent vice defence? #

With origin-side evidence, and only with origin-side evidence. Pulp temperatures at loading, pre-cooling records and an origin quality inspection show the cargo left at specification, which forces the argument back onto what happened during carriage.