INDUSTRY
INTERVIEW
Fresh approach
IAG Cargo’s Graham Tufft and Daniel Johnson spoke to Felicity Stredder about the
airline’s growth in the African segment, with help from its Constant Fresh product.
With the addition of
Durban in the winter
season just gone,
IAG Cargo’s African operation
now comprises eight stations
across the region, alongside
Accra, Cairo, Cape Town,
Johannesburg, Lagos, Mauritius
and Nairobi. The three-timesa
week service, operated by a
B787, will enable volumes out
of South Africa to continue
their upward trend, which have
shown no signs of dwindling,
despite the industry-wide
dip in volumes this year, says
Regional Commercial Manager
for Africa, Graham Tufft.
“We’ve certainly had a very
positive start to 2019 out of
Africa at IAG Cargo, achieving
double-digit growth in our
overall growth so far this
year. Constant Fresh has been
performing particularly well,”
he says of IAG’s perishables
product, also noting a strong
increase in garments travelling
from Africa to North America
this year. “Each year we fly over
25,000 tonnes of perishable
goods out of Africa under
our Constant Fresh product.
Commodities range from fish
to flowers and all sorts of fruit
and vegetables, such as tuna
caught off the coast of South
Africa or Mauritius, destined
for New York, to Ghanaian
mangoes or roses grown in
Kenya flying to Japan for
Mother’s Day celebrations.”
To what does he attribute
this growth? “The growth in
perishables can be attributed
to UK supermarket demand
for fresh produce, and
South African exports have
proved particularly strong,”
he explains. “For example,
in the first part of the year,
the volume of prepared fruit
salads that we carried out
of Johannesburg was up by
around 50% on last year.
Also, as expected, we saw a
resurgence of fruit exports
from Cape Town into London
in the first quarter of this year,
particularly berries and stone
fruits, as growing conditions
improved across the Western
Cape following last year’s
severe drought.”
Market trends in Africa
Tufft observes further trends across Africa. “Zimbabwe is a market
we’re very excited about this year. Driven largely by UK demand,
the country’s fruit and veg exports are continuing to grow each
year and IAG Cargo’s 18 flights a week from Johannesburg to
London provides an unrivalled gateway for Zimbabwean exports
to reach the UK and Europe. We’re also seeing a marked rise in
volumes out of Mauritius, driven largely by growth in garment
exports to both the UK and US, a growing portion of which
consists of apparel manufactured in Madagascar, which then
travels by ocean to Mauritius for uplift by air. Our five rotations
a week in the winter season and three per week in the summer
season from Mauritius into London Gatwick provide our
customers with frequent direct access to the UK market, along
with an array of services connecting on to our 26 North American
gateways.”
“The trend among international flower buyers, particularly
from Asia and North America, preferring to source directly from
the growers in Kenya as opposed to from the auctions in the
Netherlands, has also continued this year. In the lead up to
Valentine’s Day, for example, we carried 90 tonnes of roses into
Japan alone.”
Regarding the efficiency of their most sensitive exports, the
IAG Fresh product can achieve a 72-hour window, Tufft asserts.
“The amazing thing is that these fruits can be picked, washed and
packed on a Monday, flown overnight on one of our flights to
land at Heathrow on a Tuesday and be on supermarket shelves all
across the UK by Wednesday morning.”
In terms of seasonal variation, volumes on Constant Fresh
remain relatively consistent throughout the year, relates Head of
Product, Daniel Johnson. “The trends and fluctuations we see are
usually around what it is we’re shipping, rather than how much
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