March 31, 2020 — Australia’s largest producer of Western rock lobster is the main contributor to the country’s half-billion-dollar live exports of the shellfish, but it faces a stark choice; export its live product to China using expensive cargo planes or export no live rock lobster at all.
It is the harsh reality facing seafood companies around the globe as commercial passenger airlines are grounded by the coronavirus pandemic.
“We’ve seen [passenger freight] capacity drop very significantly over the last few weeks, to the point where on Wednesday we had the last direct flight to China,” Matt Rutter, CEO of Geraldton Fishermen’s Co-operative (GFC), told Undercurrent News on Thursday (March 26).
“In fact, the last available for charter is through Japan. That last flight flies on Monday [March 30],” he said.