Week in Review: When Resistance Bands Become Contraband & Tomatoes Get VIP Treatment

When even Mexico’s national soccer team can’t park a truck in Oakland without getting its equipment stolen, you know we’re living in interesting times. This week’s supply chain circus kicks off with exactly that story, followed by insights on traceability data becoming ESG gold, airlines doubling as flying refrigerators, and Moroccan tomatoes getting their own ocean express lane. Plus, Novartis just dropped $200 million on Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals’ gene-silencing technology, proving that sometimes the best investments come with the biggest price tags. Let’s dig in.

Even Mexico’s National Soccer Team Can’t Escape Oakland’s Cargo Theft Epidemic

Days before Mexico’s national soccer team prepared to face Japan at Oakland Coliseum, thieves broke into its equipment truck and made off with the training gear. If international soccer stars aren’t immune from the global cargo theft epidemic, clearly nobody is.

Mexico’s Missing Gear Shows No One’s Safe

Someone smashed the locks on the team’s utility truck parked near its downtown Oakland hotel, stealing resistance bands and rolls of training materials just days before its Saturday match. Team representatives called it “a minor incident” that could happen anywhere, but local fans weren’t buying the diplomatic spin. “It’s kind of expected in Oakland,” one disappointed supporter told reporters. The theft forced Mexico’s coaching staff to scramble for replacement equipment while dealing with the media circus around the team’s first Oakland appearance since 2007.

Welcome to America’s Cargo Theft Capital

Oakland sits at the heart of a cargo crime explosion that saw incidents surge 33% in Q2 2025 compared to the previous year. California leads the nation with 38% of all reported cargo thefts, while the Bay Area records sophisticated operations hitting everything from Home Depot stores (200+ times for $90,000 in stolen tools) to 7-Eleven ATMs dragged away by stolen trucks. The Port of Oakland’s 31% import volume spike in July created even more targets for criminal networks that now use business email compromises and real-time shipment tracking to pull off heists averaging $202,000 per incident.

Traceability: From Boring Paperwork to ESG Gold

Traceability data used to live in filing cabinets, doing the bare minimum to keep food safety inspectors happy. Now it’s the secret weapon companies use to prove they’re truly sustainable.

Your Supply Chain Data Just Got Valuable

Tracking where ingredients come from, and how they move through production, gives companies exactly what they need for ESG reporting. Carbon footprint calculations require knowing transportation routes, processing methods, and packaging choices at every step. Ethical sourcing claims need proof that holds up against regulators who crack down on greenwashing. Waste reduction efforts benefit from spotting patterns—which suppliers overproduce, where spoilage peaks, and when machines break down. 74% of food professionals finally figured out the importance of traceability and realized that they’re sitting on a data gold mine that can help them ditch vague marketing speak and show customers real proof of progress.

Regulators Want Details

Regulators are no longer asking nicely for supply chain details. The EU Deforestation Regulation comes into effect at the end of 2025, requiring companies to prove their coffee, palm oil, and cocoa never touch chopped-down forests. The Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive wants hard numbers on pollution, waste, biodiversity, and emissions. The FDA’s Food Traceability Rule goes into effect in July 2028, giving companies three years to get organized. And despite all these deadline extensions, 2024 surveys found a fifth of companies still scrambling to prepare. Those Excel spreadsheets that worked for basic recordkeeping won’t survive when regulators throw down the hammer.

The Cold Chain Is Red Hot

American Airlines just expanded its cold chain ExpediteTC service, and it’s not alone. Airlines and logistics companies are throwing serious money at temperature-controlled cargo because when your shipment is worth more than a house—and spoils faster than milk—someone needs to move it correctly.

Airlines Become Flying Refrigerators

Airlines discovered that hauling frozen vaccines pays better than cramming coach passengers into middle seats. Emergency pharmaceutical charters can’t wait for regular schedules when hospitals need autoimmune biologics—which might die outside their temperature comfort zone. Third-party logistics companies are racing to build networks that handle the steady pharmaceutical flow plus seasonal surges, like Mother’s Day, when 70% of all florals ship in a few crazy weeks. Factories shut down when they’re missing one critical part, so carriers charter overnight flights to deliver components that keep production lines moving. Speed wins because biology doesn’t negotiate.

Precision or Poverty

Temperature control turned into a science because the margins are brutal. Bump the heat up just 2°F, and the shelf life gets cut in half when humidity goes haywire. Carriers respond with obsessive real-time tracking of every degree from warehouse to doorstep, connecting cold storage to aircraft to delivery trucks without breaking the chain. Orchids from Ecuador and insulin from Denmark both get monitored 24/7. Shippers that used to gamble on regular freight now have networks with real-time shipment visibility that catch problems before they destroy cargo, because the whole system works like a well-oiled machine with a sense of urgency.  

Fresh Gets Faster: DP World’s Moroccan Express

Morocco pumps out 6.5 million tons of fresh produce to Europe every year, and demand keeps climbing 20% annually. The catch? Most of it arrives looking like it survived a demolition derby. DP World’s new Atlas service, launching in November, aims to change that.

From Road Rage to Ocean Cruise

Trucking fresh tomatoes across 3,000+ kilometers of European highways is basically asking for trouble. Border delays, traffic jams, and the occasional vandalism incident turn what should be a simple delivery into a produce nightmare. So, DP World ditched the bedlam and built a direct sea route connecting Morocco’s Agadir and Casablanca ports to London Gateway and Antwerp Gateway. Two dedicated vessels, 1,250 new refrigerated containers, and 1,000 dry containers now handle the heavy lifting—so your blueberries can arrive two days faster and look like actual blueberries instead of purple mush.

Less Waste, More Taste

Moving 150,000 tons of fresh food from road to sea slashes emissions by 250kg CO₂ per ton-kilometer, a 70% drop compared to trucking. But the real magic happens in your kitchen. Right now, 1.3 billion tons of perfectly good food gets tossed annually, creating 3.3 billion tons of greenhouse gases. But when strawberries survive their journey without getting beaten up on bumpy roads, they last longer in your fridge. As DP World’s smooth ocean transport protects delicate produce while cutting food waste, everyone wins: grocery bills stay lower, the planet breathes easier, and salads taste fresh.

When Novartis Drops $200 Million: The Arrowhead Stock Surge Decoded

Shares of Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: ARWR) jumped 27% last week, and for good reason. Novartis just handed Arrowhead a $200 million check, and promised up to $2 billion more. That’s the kind of validation that makes biotech investors do backflips.

The Deal That Made Everyone Pay Attention

Novartis wanted Arrowhead’s ARO-SNCA so badly that it agreed to pay $200 million upfront to get its hands on it. This experimental therapy targets Parkinson’s disease using Arrowhead’s TRiM platform, which basically uses RNA interference to tell disease-causing genes to be quiet and sit down. The Swiss pharma giant gets exclusive worldwide rights, while Arrowhead keeps the preclinical work, and hands off the expensive clinical trial details once they’re done. Arrowhead also locks in royalties, hitting low double digits on any future sales, plus Novartis gets dibs on other targets from the pipeline.

Why This Changes Everything for Arrowhead

Getting Novartis to write a nine-figure check validates what Arrowhead has been telling investors all along about its gene-silencing technology. The company wants 20 products in trials or on the market by 2025, and having a pharmaceutical heavyweight as your partner makes that goal look a lot more realistic. Instead of burning through cash on risky clinical trials, Arrowhead now gets paid to develop the science while someone else takes on the expensive, time-consuming process of getting drugs to market.

Your Cargo Shouldn’t Need a Security Detail

It doesn’t matter if you’re a soccer superstar qualifying for the World Cup or a produce shipper trying to get tomatoes across the Atlantic. Everyone is vulnerable and exposed in today’s supply chain. 

Don’t wait to make headlines for all the wrong reasons. The difference between a supply chain success story and a disaster depends on knowing where your cargo is—and what’s happening to it at all times.

Arm yourself with innovation: let Tive lead the way in transforming your supply chain operations. Embrace the future of logistics—get started with Tive today.