Frustrated farm sector exporters feel dudded by the federal government's confusing excuses for blocking much-needed extra Qatar Airways flights into Australia.
The annoyingly slow rebuild of international passenger flights to and from Australia since pandemic lockdowns ended has continued to restrict perishable food exports and kept freight rates high, particularly for meat and horticultural products.
Exporters believed Qatar's plans for up to 28 extra weekly Australian services could have freed up significant space in the cargo holds of those aircraft and triggered welcome air freight price competition.
Part of the freight problem has been the current dominance of narrow-bodied passenger jet flights with much less cargo space than wide-bodied twin-aisle Boeing and Airbus airliners.
Decision outcry
Tourist and travel industry outcries and the political uproar about why Canberra abruptly rejected Qatar's additional landing slots have dominated headlines this month.
Critics estimated the extra passenger traffic may have been worth at least $700 million a year to the economy.
Farm sector players have also tried to highlight the value of air freight in maintaining and building consistent and timely export relationships with long-time customers and emerging markets.
In 2019 premium quality beef and lamb exports sent by air were worth $1 billion before the COVID pandemic forced a shutdown of most air travel around the world.
Freight rates subsequently soared as most airlines, including national carrier Qantas, mothballed planes, paradoxically leaving Qatar as one of the few carriers bringing passengers and priority imports, including medical supplies, to Australia.
Freight costs for chilled, boxed meat on departing flights leapt from $1.50 a kilogram to average about $7, according to the Australian Meat Industry Council, the peak body representing processors and retailers.
Annoyingly costly
Chief executive officer, Patrick Hutchinson, said freight remained annoyingly costly, typically ranging from $3.50/kilo to $5, depending on the offshore destination.
Asia and the Middle East were the most typical markets for high end meat exports by air.
The now abundantly supplied meat processing industry was making the most of what access it could get, while also relying on improved, but slow, sea freight options.
"It would be nice if all the discussion around Qatar got past the political speak and put more focus on the value of our air freight exports," he said.
While Qatar Airways did not fly direct to Asia or the US from Australia, more Qatar flights may free up additional opportunities to service Arabian Gulf states, and greater freight competition may have a helpful trickle down impact into other regions.
Qatar began flying to Australia six years ago, partly due to lobbying efforts in Canberra by prominent NSW-based sheepmeat exporter, Roger Fletcher, and other trade and business players.
"We've had a long relationship with customers in the Middle East," Mr Fletcher said.
"We send lots of product by air to Arab countries and Europe, especially when it's in demand for festivals at certain times of the year."
Chilled meat was also often preferred over frozen products sent by sea.
Jostling for space
Mr Fletcher felt it ridiculous that despite the COVID emergency ending more than 18 months ago, meat traders were still jostling for expensive chilled air cargo space and it cost $18,000 to book a return airline ticket to the northern hemisphere.
He said the more flights available, the more chances the red meat industry would have to send extra orders, opening up markets which had dropped away when Australian meat and livestock prices were at recent record highs.
When all the other airlines walked away from us during COVID, Qatar Airways was still flying Australians home
- Roger Fletcher, Fletcher International Exports
"Food security isn't something Australia has to worry about, but some of these places import 90 per cent or 75pc of their food needs, and we can supply it," he said.
"And when all the other airlines walked away from us during COVID, Qatar Airways - recognised as the best in the business - was still flying Australians home.
"There are plenty of reasons we should give them more flight slots."
The University of Sydney's Institute of Transport and Logistics Studies' Professor Rico Merkert, said denying Qatar extra access to Australia was "ungracious", and making it easier for other countries to treat it the same way.
"By my conservative estimate, the decision will cost our economy about $1b a year in lost income from tourism, business travel and freight," he said.
Kangaroo route
Flight capacity on the "kangaroo route" between Australia and Europe was only 70pc of pre-COVID volumes, allowing current operators such as the Emirates-Qantas alliance to charge much more than in 2019.
Australian Horticultural Exporters and Importers Association's Lesley Shield said fruit and vegetable air freight was not big volume, but it was used by a wide spectrum of exporters, from avocado to to melon suppliers, and "really important" to exports of soft premium fruits such as cherries, blueberries and stone fruit.
Freight costs to Asia have dropped quite a bit, but the Middle East route is still very expensive
- Lesley Shield, Australian Horticultural Exporters and Importers Association
About 12,000 tonnes of Australia's 400,000t of horticultural exports go by air, including all cherry exports.
"Freight costs to Asia have dropped quite a bit, but the Middle East route is still very expensive," Ms Shield said.
Extra flight options with Qatar, or any airline, would "most certainly" help, particularly given the bottlenecks created by the shortage of wide-bodied jumbos flying here.
Summerfruit Australia chief executive officer, Trevor Ranford, said his industry was watching the Qatar saga, including this week's senate probes, with keen interest.
"We're an island nation. Roughly 50pc of summerfruit exports go by air - it's an essential part of the process," he said.
However, the high cost and limited availability of freight had combined with a poor crop last summer to slash total exports of peaches, apricots, nectarines and plums to just 14,000t in 2022-23 - down from 23,000t pre-COVID.