With a tentative contract deal reached with East Coast and Gulf Coast dockworkers - though a key West Coast agreement remains unsettled - import cargo volume at the nation's major retail container ports is expected to increase 8.5 percent in February over the same month last year, according to the monthly Global Port Tracker report released by the National Retail Federation and Hackett Associates.

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) identified four priorities to make air cargo more secure and urged stakeholders to move forward on the implementation of the Secure Freight principles. Secure Freight was initiated by IATA to promote global security standards in order to facilitate safe, secure and efficient operations of air cargo.

Global executives are increasingly concerned about the growing risks to their supply chains and costly negative impacts such as margin erosion and inability to keep up with demand, according to a report from Deloitte. Yet as they operate in this environment of escalating risk, an alarming 45 percent of surveyed executives say their supply chain risk management programs are only somewhat effective or not effective at all.

An uproar in China over the safety of chicken sold at KFC "has been longer lasting and more impactful than we ever imagined," according to the chief executive of parent company Yum Brands.