Occasional postings about the growing  volumes of food and flowers flown around  the world

Food flights still on the rise  6th Nov 08, by Rose Bridger
While headlines suggest dramatic decline in aviation, the global picture shows that the industry has proved remarkably resilient, first to rising oil prices, then to economic downturn. Airports Council International reports that after maintaining growth, albeit reduced, for the first six months of 2008, the 3rd quarter of the year, July to September, ended on an overall decline of 2 per cent for aviation (passengers and freight) as a whole. ACI anticipates 2008's end year results to be flat, rather than reduced growth.

ACI's July-Sept 2008 statistics show international freight declining by 3 per cent for the quarter, and domestic freight by 7 per cent in September. This is not dramatic when viewed against record passenger and freight growth of 2007, growth every quarter since June 2003, and much more dramatic contraction in many other industries. Smaller airlines going to the wall hit the headlines, but most are bought up in a wave of mergers and acquisitions. As well as most of these planes still flying around, industry projections for freight growth have not faltered. Boeing, which provides the vast majority of air cargo capacity, has reported its third year of record orders for new freighters. Apparently, there is strong demand for conversion of passenger and combi planes to freighters, as new passenger planes come into service and with increasing demand for all-cargo services. Boeing is still predicting a tripling of air freight traffic in the next 20 years, and a doubling of the world's freighter fleet.

Boeing anticipates that refrigerated food will continue to be a particular growth area. Food related airport expansion and new routes continued as the oil price spiked in July. India reported a 4.6 per cent increase in international freight traffic for July 2008, compared to July 2007, and continues its programme of airport chilled storage for agricultural exports, with facilities installed at Kalkota in July and announced for Hyderabad in August, planning for 25,000 tonnes by 2013-14. Uganda announced a high level of developer interest in expanding cargo capacity at Entebbe Airport, with agricultural produce prominent in planning for eightfold growth from 64,000 tonnes to 500,000 tonnes by 2012. Also in July, the Thai government was considering establishing a cargo carrier for agricultural exports, just a month before anti-government protestors briefly brought three airports to a standstill.

Even as aviation got caught up in economic turbulence and downturn, October saw more new food flights and infrastructure developments, for example:
• Refrigerated storage for chilled food exports inaugurated at Pakistan's Allama Iqbal Airport.
• Construction of a logistics complex for chartered cargo flights of halal agricultural products began in China's Ningxia region, with flights, initially to Dubai, Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur, anticipated in the first half of 2009.
• The Philippines is aiming to begin regular small (18 tonnes capacity) cargo plane flights of fruit and vegetables, especially mangoes, to Bahrain and possible Sharjah by December. The viability of the exports depends on whether the Philippine government will offer subsidised jet fuel and on finding suitable cargo for the returning flights.
• General Electric Commercial Aviation Services reported that, in spite of financial turmoil, fruit, vegetables, sugarcane and coffee are driving growth of South American air cargo, for example in Brazil and Chile.
• Korean Airlines Cargo upgraded from an A330-200 to a B777-200 to increase its perishable produce uplift from Melbourne to Japan and Europe.
The majority of 10 tonne cargo capacity of Emirates new Dubai-Los Angeles passenger flight is expected to be filled up with fruit and vegetables on the outbound flights from LA

USAID diversifies in Afghanistan 14th Aug 08, by Rose Bridger
On 3rd August the Afghan and US governments broke ground on a new airport and agricultural centre in Lashkar Gah, the capital of Afghanistan's conflict ridden Helmand province. The 33 hectare Bost Airfield & Agricultural Center is intended to open up international markets for high value agricultural products which grow well in the area, such as nuts, grapes, apricots and pomegranates. USAID (United States Agency for International Development) is contributing £40 million to the project, with the Afghan government expected to allocate $5 million. The airport development is linked with USAID ADP/S (Alternative Development Program/Southern Afghanistan) horticultural projects which introduce modern techniques such as plastic tunnel greenhouses. By March 2008 two hundred tunnel greenhouses for local produce hybrids and new crops targeting wealthy markets in Dubai and the EU were established, and 200 more are being built. New crops include chillies, and between January and March 2008 40 million imported chilli seedlings, along with fertilizers, were distributed to over 1,520 farmers for planting 800 hectares.

The projects support the counter narcotics strategy by encouraging alternatives to growing opium, but raise the question of whether the emphasis is on diversification for Afghan farmers, or for the reconstruction industry to venture into hi-tech export horticulture. In addition to opening up opportunities for refrigeration equipment, agricultural input and food processing suppliers the inbound and outbound supply chains link with a typical mix of energy, engineering, construction, transportation, logistics and security firms, along with major NGOs and aid agencies. The ADP/S horticultural projects are more oriented towards exports than feeding the Afghan people, and by June 2008 had exported 2,600 tonnes of Afghan fruit and nuts.

The exports grow amidst a situation of serious malnutrition in Afghanistan, with the World Food Programme estimating that over a fifth of the 6.6 million population are not meeting their minimum food needs and that 54 per cent of children's growth is stunted by hunger. WFP anticipates distributing 550,000 tonnes of food aid to 7 million Afghan people between Jan 2006 and December 2008. ADP/S grain growing projects are more oriented towards domestic markets, yet high in imported agricultural inputs. This year an additional 3,600 hectares are being planted with certified USAID corn seed and 3,600 hectares with peanuts. The seeds were distributed with 1,400 tonnes of fertiliser, part of a total of 6,500 tonnes of fertiliser distributed by ADP/S up to June 2008. In 2007, 480 hectares in Helmand were planted with certified imported wheat. Growers involved in the wheat project used ID cards that they had been given some time ago for the first time, as the ID cards were used to track who is involved in the seed distribution.

Neighbouring Helmand to the East, in the Kandahar province, the Kandahar Orchards Project to rehabilitate fruit and nut growing involved 263 families in 2007, and a further 250 orchards are being brought into the programme. New cold storage opened in September 2007, and three days after harvesting the first ever direct air freight shipment of pomegranates flew to Dubai, with 6 tonnes loaded on an Antonov12 military aircraft. By the end of the season in December ADP/S reported that 782 tonnes had been exported, with the bulk of the fruit, 683 tonnes, going to India and small quantities to UAE, Singapore, UK and Canada. The International Herald Tribune reported higher export figures of 701 tonnes of pomegranates flown to India, 609.6 tonnes to Pakistan and 36.5 tonnes to Dubai, mostly carried on outgoing military flights. Pomegranates are used in desert conditions as a drink and food because of their long shelf life and, like the dried fruit and nuts air freighted out of Afghanistan, can usually be transported by land. The airport centric developments in Afghanistan do bring secure routes that cannot be assured when transporting produce by land in the severe and long term conflict conditions, but, with the perimeter fence, surveillance and other airport kit it is ratcheting up militarisation of the region, not merely responding to it.

Will biofuels feed aeroplanes? 2nd July 08, by Rose Bridger
A considerable proportion of biofuel from edible crops is pumped into the tanks of trucks to transport food long distances. Initiatives aiming to feed planes with biofuels are taking off as well. Air New Zealand is seeking approval for a test flight for a Boeing 747-400 this autumn, using jatropha in one of the aircraft's four engines. Jatropha grows up to 3 metres high with berries that yield up to 40 per cent oil. The crop is non-edible and can tolerate poor, dry soils, so it is claimed that it does not compete with food crops like maize, soya, palm and sugar cane, and offers employment opportunitiesas it cannot be mechanically harvested. Air New Zealand Chief Executive Rob Fyfe says that jatropha could be produced for less than two thirds of the cost of jet fuel, meaning major savings on the firm's bill for 9 million barrels per year. It is anticipated that jatropha could provide about million barrels per year, 10 per cent of the airline's fuel, by 2013. The jatropha fuel is being sourced from Africa and India, and refined in the US.
Millions of hectares of land are being allocated for the jatropha plant in many African and Asian countries. Alan Beattie reports in the Financial Times that, in the village of Mtamba, near the coast of Tanzania, UK firm Sun Biofuels will soon be growing jatropha on 8,000 hectares, with plans to expand over more than 40,000 hectares. Villagers are not well informed about the projects, are doubtful about employment prospects and charcoal makers have been evicted to make way for the jatropha. Apart from the compensation paid to 152 farmers, Sun Biofuels gets the land free on a 99 year lease. Dominique Patton reports in Nairobi Daily that UK based D1Oils has planted 175,000 hectares of jatropha, 40,000 hectares in Swaziland, Zambia and Madagascar and the rest in India and South East Asia, and fertiliser inputs are required. D1Oils aims to export about half the production in Africa and India to the West.
In Swiss based development NGO Alliance Sud Spring 2008 newsletter, Rosemarie Baer reports large scale export plantations, with D1Oils planting over 1 million hectares over the next four years, rather than programmes to provide these countries' own people with renewable energy. It notes displacing smallholders from food growing in Tanzania. The Indian government is planning to transform 11 million hectares of so-called wasteland into Jatropha plantations by 2012, with NGO Navdanya protesting severe pressure from multinationals to give up land used by smallholders for crops like rice and for cattle.

India's chill-chain goes against the grain 28th May 08, by Rose Bridger
Many factors underlie the rising food prices that are sparking protests in many countries. Demand for biofuels and animal feed competes with human food supplies, climactic instability is affecting agricultural yields, and rising oil prices affect every segment of the food chain from farm inputs to distribution. India is one of about 40 countries restricting grain exports, and has banned all rice exports except premium Basmati. Yet subsidies, infrastructure provision and ambitious export targets continue for fruit, vegetables and fish, which necessitate a fossil fuel dependent chill-chain of refrigeration. Poorer people in India, and many other countries, have been less and less able to afford these nutritious foods, falling back on the staple grains which are now also too expensive.
India's MPEDA (Marine Products Export Development Authority) has set an export earnings target for edible and ornamental fish of $6 billion by 2015 and is considering aquaculture parks near international airports. Tuna exports grew 88% to 23,788 tonnes between 2006 and 2007, and are planned to more than double to 50,000 tonnes within 2-3 years. Most of the tuna exports will be by ship with deep water port facilities at Chennai, Vishakhapatnam, Kochi and Veraval, along with charter flights for premium sashimi.
In 2007, APEDA (Agricultural & Processed Products Export Development Authority) announced a 25% target for increase of fruit, vegetables and ornamental plants exports within a year. The emphasis is on air freight with new cold storage currently in development at more than 12 airports including smaller airports like Srinagar, Jammu and Tiruchirapalli. India's airports are reporting growing chilled produce exports. Delhi's monthly export figures for chilled produce show rapid increases, more than doubling from 840 tonnes in Jan 2007 to 1714 tonnes in Jan 2008. About 40% of Mumbai Airport's throughput is chilled produce, and in 2005-06 over 115,000 tonnes were handled, nearly 54,000 tonnes by Air India. Construction of perishable produce handling facilities at Kochi Airport is expected to result in an instant export growth of 30% to 9,000 tonnes, with an ultimate target of 25,000 tonnes per year.
In June 2006, the Indian government announced subsidies for certain perishable products destined for export, paying 50% of air freight costs from airports in the North Eastern States to Mumbai or Delhi Airports, or 90% of the air freight charged by the airline from the NES or Bagdogra to Guwahati or Kolkata for export. Time will tell if the chilled produce export development policy will be compatible with simultaneous announcements of policy initiatives to improve the country's food self-sufficiency.

Fish flies high in Yorkshire 21st April 08, by Rose Bridger
The perishables centre at Yorkshire's Humberside Airport opens this month, which will enable more fish to be flown in to the UK by Icelandair, and export of processed chilled products such as ready meals. Supplies of fish from Iceland will be limited by the new cod catch quotas, so Grimsby Council has been working on a trade agreement with Iceland to secure supplies for processors based in Grimsby. Development of Akureyri Airport, which is currently a single runway airport in one of Iceland's most important fishing ports, is being fast tracked for fish exports to commence later this year. The airborne fish supply chain into Europe was extended further in Nov 2007. About twice a month, an Icelandair Boeing 757 freighter flies empty from Reykjavic in Iceland to Gander in Newfoundland, Canada, returning laden with up to 32 tonnes seafood, especially mussels, to Reykjavic, with connecting flights for distribution to European cities. The Government of Newfoundland and Labrador is keen to support the establishment of the new trade lanes, so has allocated just over $250,000 which will pay for the shortfall if the flight does not have a full payload of seafood. Elsewhere in Yorkshire, exports from Robin Hood Airport include lobsters flown out to Spain by freight forwarder GX Danbrit. Many of these lobsters are served in Spanish tourist destinations, and British tourists are among those eating them. Throughput at GX Danbrit's warehouse at Robin Hood Airport doubled between 2006 and 2007, and other cargo carried includes flowers from Florida, hazardous cargo and heavyweight stuff such as bull dozers and road rollers en route to Africa.

Bojo boost cargo volumes 4th Feb 08, by Rose Bridger
In November 2007 British Airways World Cargo continued its 20 year tradition of participating in the 'Bojo Run' of air freighting Beaujolais around the world. A 1954 European ruling stipulates that shipments of Beaujolais Nouveau must leave the European Union on the second Thursday in November. This leaves one week for bottles to reach destinations all over the world in time for celebrations of Beaujolais Nouveau Day on the third Thursday in November, triggering a flurry of flights. In 2007, for the first time, freighters carrying Beaujolais were able to land at Heathrow, with flights from Lyon Airport enabling Boeing 747's to connect with flights out of London to deliver 300,000 bottles to the US, Japan and Korea. Other carriers involved with the 2007 Bojo Run include Lufthansa flying over a million bottles all over the world, weighing 1,256 tonnes, and Emirates SkyCargo delivering approximately 315,450 bottles to Japan. Over the years many UK airports have had their cargo volumes boosted with shipments for the Bojo Run. In 2006 BAWC air freighted 540 tonnes, consisting of 447,000 bottles, and were the first to deliver the wine to New York and the only carrier to deliver to Sydney and Bermuda. The first BAWC Beaujolais consignment to land in the UK in 2006 was a Boeing 747 carrying 120 tonnes to England's East Midlands Airport. The wine was then loaded on to ten trucks to London's Heathrow and Gatwick airports to connect with flights to the US and Japan. The 747 then flew empty back to Lyon to pick up another 100 tonnes for delivery to Japan. In 2005 Robin Hood Airport handled half a million bottles.

Inaugural flights 6th Dec 07, by Rose Bridger
Food and farming prominent in many of the new flights over the last few weeks:
• Active Airlines flew the first freighter load of pregnant heifers in a Boeing 747 from Frankfurt to Siberia
• Emirates Airlines inaugural flight from Sao Paolo in Brazil to UAE carried fertilised chickens' eggs
• Ethiopian Airlines supplemented its fleet for flower exports with two Boeing 747's each with a capacity of 100 tonnes
• The first flights containing Ethiopia's first strawberries exports, a new line of premium strawberries flown to the Netherlands
• Etihad Airlines increased its 3 times per week service from Syndney to Abu Dhabi to a daily service, with cargo flown out from Sydney 80% perishable produce including frozen meat, fruit and vegetables
• Egypt Air Cargo raised its weekly capacity between Cairo and Frankfurt to 1,500 tonnes, increasing the flights from 7 to 15, with exports from Egypt mainly fruit and vegetables, and return flights loaded with live animals, machine parts and technical equipment
• Icelandair began a new weekly flight of fish and live horses to Stockholm and a new B757 service flying seafood and oil and gas equipment between Keflavic and Newfoundland

Mixed salad mix up 5th Sept 07, by Rose Bridger
There is a lot of information on the packets of prepared, refrigerated produce which take up more and more space in the fresh produce aisles of UK supermarkets. There are sliced and diced fruits, mixed fruit salads, podded peas and sliced beans, mixed salads and packets of mixed vegetables for stir fries, steaming or roasting. The Marks & Spencer labels inform us that these products are a 'healthy option' with a cute sunflower logo and warns about pips or possible stone residue in fruit salads, with some of the more elaborate salads labelled as suitable for vegetarians. Along with Sainsburys, M&S labels tells customers that the contents of the packages constitute one or more of our recommended 5 portions of fruit and veg per day. In Sainsburys, some of the salad packages are labelled as grown in the UK, but most of the rest of the products do not give the countries of origin on the label. M&S labels its air freighted fresh produce with a plane logo, but this does not appear on the the packaged fruit, veg and salad mixtures labelled 'produce of various countries'. Yet these products are likely to be air freighted. This growth in 'supermarket ready' produce destined for the UK is outlined in the 17th Aug feature on African perishable produce in International Freighting Weekly . This states that 'SAA [South African Airways] admits it is moving "a lot" of prepared fruit and vegetables for customers such as Tesco and Marks & Spencer… Supermarket-ready produce is also big business for British Airways World Cargo (BAWC). It has even seen South African shippers import mangoes from India, clean and cut them up for inclusion in exported fruit salad. "We take a mix of prepared fruit and vegetables for the supermarkets, especially Sainsbury’s and Marks & Spencer,"’ Maybe listing all the countries of origin on the labels would take up too much space, especially if there was a plane symbol for each connecting flight.

Airborne asparagus 16th May 07, by Rose Bridger
Asparagus is in season in England and is in stores alongside imports mainly from Thailand and Peru. Unlike the imported varieties, which are usually uniformly straight lined up with military style precision all exactly the same height and stalk width, the supermarkets seem to have relaxed their rigid specifications as the English versions are allowed to be quite curved and vary in size. The label on the Marks & Spencer English asparagus informs us that it is 'from the field' as if this is a new innovation. It's all expensive though, one small packet costs more than many of the complete ready meals for two. Demand for asparagus is soaring, especially in Europe, the US and Japan. Peru is the world's largest asparagus exporter, only 3% pf production is consumed domestically. Fresh asparagus exports are almost exclusively air freighted, and 80% of exports are to the US, the world's biggest asparagus importer. Horticultural produce makes up the largest proportion of rising US food imports and in 2005 the US became a net food importer, the balance shifting from nearly 50 years of agricultural trade surplus. In 2006, 72% of the cargo at Miami Airport consisted of agricultural produce, fish and flowers, 71% in volume originating from South America, and Miami's continued cargo growth in 2006 is attributed to food and flower imports. Miami's position as the destination for 70% of air freight imports of agricultural produce and fish to the US may be challenged by the new 60,000m3 cold storage facility, which doubled George Bush Intercontinental Airport's perishable imports capacity in November 2006. Meanwhile, asparagus is a key product in California's airborne agriculture exports which a 2005 report by the Center for Agricultural Business at California State University shows grew by 60% 2000-04, with the EU the biggest market. The Californian Agricultural Resource Directory 06 shows that asparagus production plummeted by over a third in 2004-05, but exports rose by 73%.

Flying fish farms etc. 19th Mar 07, by Rose Bridger
Pets, livestock, racehorses and wild animals are clocking up more air miles. Over two million live animals per year are transported by air in the US alone. With Border Inspection Post providing facilities like air conditioning and exercise areas, animals in transit can be treated better than the migrant workers upon whom food production from farming through to processing is increasingly dependent. MasKargo runs the world's first 6 star animal hotel at Kuala Lumpur International Airport with luxury facilities like a hydrotherapy spa, grooming salon and play area. In 2005, United Arab Emirates based Asmak fish farms were noted for their monthly restocking of sea bream, air freighting over a million fish fry from Greece, complete with water and oxygen tanks, filling up half a Boeing 747 and carried by Emirates Sky Cargo (Fujairah Business Today, Sept-Oct 05). In 2006 SkyCargo flew 255 wild animals from their Namibian grazing grounds to the Sumu Game Reserve in Kano, Nigeria. Giraffes, elands, zebras, kudus, oryx, blue wildebeest, hartebeest, springbok, and impala were flown at night in purpose built containers to minimise stress to the animals aboard the Boeing 747-400F freighter charter. Sharjah Airport in UAE has a special storage area for bees, and for five months of the year 20 tonnes are flown in on a twice weekly basis then trucked over 100 miles to 'honey farms' in Al Ain, known as the 'garden city of the Gulf'. In Sri Lanka the National Aquaculture Development Authority has proposed a dedicated area to facilitate ornamental fish exports at Colombo Airport, as part of the expansion of facilities for export of agricultural produce and fish (South Asia Logistics, 13th Nov 06).

Is Green Gold the new Black Gold? 5th Feb 07, by Rose Bridger
Exports of horticultural and floricultural produce from Ethiopia are expected to soar, with the new 14,000 square meter cargo terminal at Addis Ababa Airport which opened in Nov 06 with the capacity to handle 100,000 tonnes per annum, about half of which is expected to be perishable produce including flowers, fruit, vegetables, meat and fish. Key routes include flowers direct to Amsterdam, via Cairo to Brussels and via Abu Dhabi to Frankfurt for trucking across Europe and short-haul flights between African destinations carrying produce such as fish. The Ethiopian Horticultural Producers and Exporters Association expects flower export incomes to grow from £20m in 2005 to £400m in 2007, so this 'Green Gold' could overtake coffee, referred to as 'Black Gold', as the country's major export commodity. How much of this income will filter down to the rural poor of the country, the world's second biggest recipient of food aid, is uncertain. Flower farms have sprung up all over the country, especially near Addis Ababa airport, displacing some of the best land for food crops. Over half the new farm areas, which include some of the biggest sites ever acquired by a single investor, are owned by foreign investors, attracted by incentives including 5-10 year tax holidays, subsidised air freight charges and development grants. Ethiopia's rapid development of flower exports has led to it being referred to as the 'New Kenya', and investment incentives have attracted some flower farms in Kenya and Uganda to relocate. The film Black Gold about the efforts of Ethiopian coffee farmers to get a better price for their crops, earning as little as $1.10 per pound of coffee that can make $160 for retailers, is released in UK cinemas in April 07. 'Black gold' of a different kind could also be in the pipeline, as oil exploration is underway with expectations that Ethiopia could become a major oil exporting nation.

Freshly flown in 12th Dec 06, by Rose Bridger
Air freight of fresh food into Britain is growing at many British airports. British Airways owned Heathrow Perishables Handling Centre, which consolidates cargo trucked in from other airports including Stansted and Gatwick, is set to increase its throughput from 90,000 tonnes in 2005 to 140,000 in 2006. Soft fruit is a key growth area, including strawberries and raspberries from Mexico and the US West coast at 35% per annum (Food Chain Magazine, Jul/Aug 05). Pangaean Ltd are on target to open a new Perishables Handling Centre for air freighted produce at Manchester Airport in Feb 2007, close to the distribution centres of major supermarkets. Pangaean is working with Manchester Airport, which is wholly owned by the Greater Manchester local authorities, to develop routes from supplying regions, including Spain and Turkey (UK Airport News, 29th Oct 06). At Humberside Airport flights of Icelandic fish have grown from once a week to almost daily over the past six years, including line caught fish available in supermarkets such as Waitrose and Marks & Spencer originating from fisheries widely regarded as examples of good practice in sustainable management. A new perishables cold storage hub, supported by £2.25m from Government Office for Yorkshire and the Humber and Yorkshire Forward, is anticipated to be a key contributor to a forecasted increase in cargo throughput from approximately 4,000 tonnes in 2006 to 9,000 tonnes by 2020. Elsewhere, British airports' Border Inspection Posts for livestock are booming, with Glasgow Prestwick offering full board and lodgings for livestock stopping over beween Europe and the US, and London Luton Airport's more unusual freight has included 1000 sheep from New Zealand.

 

 

 

12th Nov 08 installed gizmo

23rd Dec 08 installed another gizmo