Since the weekend the impact of border closures to Southern African passengers has already had an impact on the fresh cargo sector as outbound planes were full with foreigners hastily leaving OR Tambo International Airport.
Air France flights were cancelled on Saturday, dealing a blow to litchi exports to France, biggest litchi recipient in Europe. Those flights were also taking blueberries and cherries to France.
“We think the closing of the borders to South Africa is an overreaction, as the President [Cyril Ramaphosa] said on TV last night, and it’s a big frustration. We deal with perishable product – it can’t wait. It’s an unknown how much we’ll be able to fly out this week. Our agents have been nonstop busy since the weekend, trying to contact airlines and to confirm flights and destinations. The time zone difference also plays a role and it adds to our nervousness,” says an exporter based at OR Tambo airport.
Amount of available space dropped drastically
Fortunately the harvest of the Mauritius litchi cultivar from South Africa is starting a bit late and therefore the situation is “not catastrophic” for litchis at the moment, notes Pierre Pieters of Core Fruit.
For litchis and increasingly blueberries, sea freight is an alternative, but fresh commodities like pineapples rely exclusively on air freight.
There are still flights to Heathrow and to Schiphol, but all of the air freight companies to whom FreshPlaza spoke agreed that they were highly uncertain what to expect from planned flights later this week.
“Everyone’s on tenterhooks, and we don’t know what to expect next from airlines. A number of airlines like Lufthansa and Virgin Atlantic are still flying but the amount of available space has drastically dropped.”
An air freight pallet prepared for a flight from OR Tambo International Airport
Recent baggage allowance incentives had already eroded cargo space
There’s a lot more money to be made on passengers than on cargo, says a freight forwarder. Recently British Airways had been incentivizing travellers by allowing a greater baggage allowance than before, which had further reduced cargo space.
“We’ll make new plans, trade will definitely continue, perhaps to a limited agree. The question is what tariffs are going to do. One could be seeing, given a scenario of greater demand with smaller supply, a high price value on cargo space,” Pierre says.