A method was proposed to reduce the amount of shock experienced by cherry cargos being shipped from Japan’s Yamagata Prefecture to Taipei, Taiwan. In this study, cherries were first packaged in500g plastic containers, which were then loaded into corrugated fiberboard containers two packages per container. A total of10such corrugated fiberboard containers were then loaded into a larger corrugated fiberboard packaging container. This packaging style was found to reduce shock acceleration at the very bottom by half as compared to the ordinary shipping method, in which three two-package boxes were fastened together with the help of plastic bands. Consequently, shock-induced damage to the cherries during export was significantly decreased. In addition, we investigated the shock absorbing effectiveness of the selected cushioning material. We determined that five-mm-thick urethane sheeting could decrease shock acceleration at the very bottom by 1/2.4～1/3.7 and that adding additional sheets could decreased the shock even further. However, we also found that the sheeting other than one at the bottom did not provide sufficient cushioning effects.
