As reported on 27 January, Australian fruit and vegetable exports are losing their markets to baby formula exports. This problem seems to be affecting Tasmanian horticulture exporters especially, who are finding it difficult to find room for their cherry exports.
Chris Fox, managing director of Australian-owned cold-chain freight specialist Link Logistics at Cambridge, said the company, which has a plant in Shanghai in China to receive deliveries, had to be innovative to get the produce from one of Australia’s largest cherry exporters, Reid Fruits, to market.
Reid Fruits marketing and business development manager Lucy Gregg said the Tasmanian company had enjoyed a good growing season, but managing export shipments in fluid markets was made more difficult because of the squeeze on airfreight space.
She said fruit got to Melbourne but getting it further from there “caused quite a few headaches”, with some batches sent to China via Thailand.
“The situation caused us angst, the flow-on effects of delayed delivery are significant,” Ms Gregg said.
Tasmanian cherries can reach end customers in China within a couple of days of being picked in the orchard.
The freight bottleneck has delayed some cherry exports by as much as four days.
Export Council of Australia chairwoman Dianne Tipping suggests opening up new air routes to Asia as one solution but also wants the Australian and Chinese Governments to work together to produce an agreement.
Australian Horticulture Exporters Association chairman David Minnis said fruit and vegetable exports should have priority because of their fragility.
