According to Lufthansa Consulting, for some countries in Southern America and Africa ¨C like Sudan, for example ¨C more than 80 per cent of their total exports consist of fruit orflowers.
Other countries would like to become more engaged in the production of perishable products for export but for now lack adequate, competitively priced air cargo uplift capacities. However, the trend towards such production is, nonetheless, growing.
Market trends
Ram Menen, Emirates SkyCargo divisional senior vice president cargo, says the perishables market is growing for Emirates, as well as industry wide. "Th is is in keeping with the increasing demand worldwide for fresh foods all through the year," he says.
"Whereas previously most fruits and vegetables were seasonal, today you can buy strawberries, for example, from your supermarket all year round."Th ere is also a fast growing pharmaceuticals market segment of the perishables sector, he adds.
But it’s not all coming up roses, as Niek van der Weide, executive vice president commercial of Cargo B Airlines says that while there is still a modest increase in perishable traffic on some routes from South America and Africa, sea freight is becoming a serious competitor, even for flowers.
Despite this he says there is still increasing movement of foodstuff s and African flowers from markets such as Zambia, Tanzania and in particular, Ethiopia.
Cargo B, which mainly flies flowers, is absolutely up-beat that more fruits today are now being transported by ocean shipping than previously in the markets that it serves.
"New techniques and faster ships can, in the future, become a bigger threat to air cargo," says van der Weide.
However, Robert van de Weg, senior vice-president, sales & marketing of Cargolux, sees it differently. He says the perishables market is still increasing, but does not see ocean carriers as competitors.
"It does not mean necessarily faster, as loading/unloading at already congested ports goes slower. Furthermore, we have understood from public information that certain shipping lines are actually reducing their speed in order to save fuel costs. But of course, sea is always an alternative," he says, adding that packing and temperature control becomes even more crucial during the longer voyage.
Perishable growth areas
Cargolux, which transports all kinds of perishables from flowers, vegetables, cheese, fish to meat, is seeing its new growth coming from Kenya. Th e airline is also eyeing Ethiopia and China as new markets for perishables.
Growth for Cargo B is still coming on routes from Johannesburg and Nairobi to Europe and from Ecuador and Colombia to Europe. Th e airline, which is seeing growth mainly from flowers, says Peru may become an option in the future as well. "We still see good opportunities from these areas to Europe with transit via Europe toother areas," says van der Weide.
Menen says Emirates is experiencing good growth in business flying fruit and vegetables from Africa. Th e airline operates freighters to Nairobi, Eldoret, Entebbe, Lilongwe, Johannesburg, Khartoum and Djibouti to cater to the perishables traffic from the region, on top of the belly-hold capacity the airline provides in wide-bodied passenger aircraft flights to the continent.
South America is also looking to be a promising market for Emirates. "We have also seen excellent perishable loads on our Sao Paulo flights since we launched the route six months ago. We transport a lot of Brazilian meat as well as hatchling eggs from Sao Paulo to the Middle East and onwards to Asia, mainly Japan and China," he says.
Environmental concerns
Both Cargolux and Cargo B say that the environmental concerns are not having signifi cant impact on their business despite the increasingly high media profile the issueof so-called ‘food-miles’ is getting.
"People talk easily, but changing real behavior is something else," says van de Weg. "More importantly, it is not clear if, for example, vegetables and flowers grown far away produce more carbon dioxide (CO₂) in comparison to production in green houses closer to the market." Menen says Emirates is undertaking a number of environmentally friendly initiatives ¨C within the airline and amongst the suppliers and manufacturing partners with whom it works ¨C to minimise the impact on the environment. Th ese include on-ground and in-air efforts.
At its home base in Dubai, Emirates has reduced vehicle movements around the airport and it already operates one of the world’s youngest fleet, with an average age of 63 months. It continues to invest in new, technologically-advanced aircraft which produce fewer emissions.
Future growth for perishables
Asia is Emirates SkyCargo’s biggest market in general and, in terms of perishables, the airline transports a great deal of such items, especially salmon, beans and other vegetables to Japan. In addition, the airline carries more perishables traffic during certain times of the year. For example, in the 2008 Chinese Lunar New Year a freighter was chartered to transport 42 tonnes of fresh produce from Bangkok to Hong Kong.
Cargolux sees Kenya as its largest market and in Asia, Thailand is the largest market for the airline for handling orchids, vegetables and fish. Th e airline believes that the China perishables market will grow in the near future as certain areas fi t flower production well.
Cargo B, on the other hand, sees its future growth from the in-bound flowers business from South America, and also flowers, vegetables and fruit from South Africa and Kenya. It estimates perishables contribute to 50-60 per cent of the airline’s revenue.