Pharmaceuticals take off as a top Miami export

As Miami International Airport continues to grow its cargo, pharmaceuticals fly high among its top commodities.

“Over the last, I want to say three, four years, we’ve had… [about] four straight record-breaking years in just cargo overall,” said Ralph Cutié, director of the Miami-Dade Aviation Department. “Back during the pandemic we had, I think it was a little bit over 2.3 million tons in 2020 in the middle of a pandemic, then in 2021 we had I think it was 2.7, then 2.75, and then almost 2.8, this past year in 2023. We’re trending almost 10% over last year’s numbers. We’re looking at a fifth straight record-breaking year for cargo.”

Pharmaceuticals is a subset of the overall cargo operation.

The majority of pharma operations is found in exports, which account for 90%, said Mr. Cutié. “We’re averaging about 19,000 tons over the last five years, which is a big operation specifically to pharma, [out of] 2.8 million last year overall.”

In 2021, pharma had its best year in value: $7.2 billion, said Mr. Cutié.

Pharma has seen an increase in recent years as the pandemic catapulted it.

“I think it’s been over the last five years where it’s [pharma has] really taken off, and I think the pandemic had a lot to do with it,” said Mr. Cutié.

“When we were having really bad passenger numbers during the pandemic – our passenger numbers now … we’ve had two straight record-breaking years and we’re on our way to our third straight record breaking year – but cargo carried us during the pandemic.”

There were limited passenger numbers due to the pandemic, said Mr. Cutié, as cargo gained momentum. “We were moving PPE (personal protective equipment) and gloves, masks, vaccines, medications … all during the pandemic, so we had a peak during the pandemic. It dropped off a little bit after, but it’s still strong.”

Last year, pharmaceuticals were MIA’s fourth top commodity, said Mr. Cutié.

“Last year we had about … 16,325 [US] tons,” he said, “which equated to a value of about $5.6 billion of pharmaceuticals.”

One reason why pharmaceuticals are among the airport’s top commodities is that it is the gateway to the Americas, said Mr. Cutié. Many countries that are provided with medications do not produce their own.

The route networks that have been built have also impacted the conversation.

The team, said Mr. Cutié, “over the years, have built up that route network, which makes us the gateway…. We didn’t automatically become a gateway just because of location. There is a lot of effort that goes behind it. They’re always traveling, drumming up business, getting different airlines to comply with those different companies to do business with us. So at the end of the day, it’s a combination of all those efforts that have put us where we are now.”

About 77% of MIA’s pharma exports by volume go to Latin America and Caribbean markets.

“We have relationships with more than 1,500 companies here,” said Mr. Cutié. “We have more than 451,000 square feet of cold storage facilities here at the airport – here and around. Nobody else has that. That makes us kind of an industry leader, and when it comes to pharmaceuticals – which in most cases have to be stored in cold storage – that gives us a tremendous competitive edge that a lot of other airports don’t have.”

It’s a combination of a great location, said Mr. Cutié, and a lot of hard work from a team that establishes those networks and facilities.

Medicines, vaccines, and diagnostic laboratory equipment are some of the products moved within pharmaceuticals, said Mr. Cutié. There are many things other than medicines and vaccines, but all are considered pharmaceuticals. “They all require cold storage, and a certain expertise in both storing and processing and transporting all this product to where it has to go. You have to have special certifications.”

MIA has nine partners that are CEIV (Center of Excellence for Independent Validators) certified in pharmaceuticals, said Mr. Cutié, including Atlas Air, Avianca, Amerijet, Swissport and TriStar.

“They have to be certified because it’s not like you’re handling just … boxes,” he said. “There’s a very specific way to handle some of these things. Some of them are delicate…. There’s a special certification that the carrier has to have in order to be able to move and process those pharmaceuticals.”

Brazil sits at number one in MIA’s pharma exports and accounts for 26.59% of total exports of pharmaceuticals, followed by Colombia accounting for 13.15% and Chile at 7.86%.

Imports of pharmaceuticals are a mixed bag, said Mr. Cutié. “Product may come in and it gets moved from one plane to the other, it gets transferred and off it goes to its final destination and it’s quick, so it’s got to go in a refrigerated truck, etc. Now you may have some stuff that comes in, that has to stay here a period of time and to this point, it’ll get sent to one of our warehouses and it gets cold stored there until the flight that it’s going to go on goes…. It could go off right away, it could stay here a while.”

The certified airline partners and individuals know how to handle and process the products, said Mr. Cutié, “whether it gets transferred directly to another flight, all the refrigeration that happens, to move the items; they’re fully trained and certified… the same if it’s stored, they know how to store it, etc., what the right temperature is…. That’s why you have all those certifications, to make sure that we don’t have a situation where a vaccine goes bad or becomes dangerous or it becomes ineffective, etc. The whole idea is to make sure that it gets to where it has to go so people can use it.”