Two days ago it was 10,000 kilometres away off the Nova Scotia coast. Now the Canadian lobster is crawling around in a fish tank in Abu Dhabi with a price tag of Dh160.
Surging aircraft traffic through the UAE is adding thousands of tonnes of extra cargo capacity every day. Restaurants, hotels and other fresh produce importers are reaping the benefits of the trend. At the same time demand is rising for warehouses around airports in Dubai and Abu Dhabi as the fresh produce logistics industry swells.
“Importing live seafood is a very tight supply chain and if it weren’t for the airlines it wouldn’t be possible,” said Jurgen Scharkosi, the general manager of The Big Blu, a live seafood shop in Abu Dhabi. He relies on air freight for 95 per cent of his business.
Inside the shop, bubbling tanks accommodate giant crabs from Kenya, oysters from Namibia and crayfish from the UK.
“It is a very tight supply chain,” says Mr Scharkoski. “They should not be out of sea water more than 45-48 hours; otherwise they get weak and die.”
Cargo volumes at Abu Dhabi International Airport were up 16 per cent year on year for the first six months of 2014 as Etihad Airways boosted its route network. Last year, Dubai International Airport ranked the fifth-busiest world-wide for cargo handling. Middle Eastern freight markets grew by 9.4 per cent in July, making the region one of the fastest growing globally, according to the International Air Transport Association.
"What is more important than the aircraft are the facilities at the airport," said Mr Scharkosi. "If people at the airport have an understanding of what it is, then it functions very well. For example, they are very organised with importing live seafood in Dubai. They understand that it has priority in clearance and that it has to be chilled."
Australian meat exporters are also benefiting from the increased cargo capacity, with Emirates Airline teaming up with Qantas to boost flights through Dubai, while Etihad and Virgin Australia increase cargo traffic through Abu Dhabi. Australia now flies in 10,000 carcasses a day to the Arabian Gulf states and Jordan.
“There are up to 147 flights per week fly from Australia to the Gulf – this includes Doha, Abu Dhabi and Dubai,” said Gerard Seeber, senior trade commissioner and consul general, at the Australian Consulate-General in Dubai. “You have the facility of carrying freight in those aircraft. This increase in ability to carry freight reduces cost for exporters.”
“It allows very fresh products and premium products to be delivered every day to Dubai from Australia.”
Surging air cargo capacity is also spurring demand for warehouses around the country’s big airports.
Dubai’s Jebel Ali Free Zone said last week that profits rose by more than 40 per cent in the first half of the year as it attracted 350 new tenants.
“A lot of food and beverage companies are looking for cold storage warehouses and food preparation sites near the airport. That’s driven by the boom in the hospitality sector in Dubai,” said Faisal Durrani, Cluttons’ international research and business development manager. “Over the past 12 to 18 months there’s been an increase in the number of food and beverage outlets looking for industrial space. They tend to look for large sites, which are only available in new industrial areas in Jebel Ali, because of shortages in central Dubai.”
Back at the Big Blu seafood shop in Mushrif Mall, evening shoppers peer through the glass of the tanks before making their selection.
They do not know that the lobsters inside have travelled by small plane to Montreal resting on wet tissue paper, then on a bigger plane to London, onwards to Dubai then by car to Abu Dhabi.
From lobster pot to dinner plate, the journey has taken 35 hours.
Like the UAE’s rapidly expanding air cargo industry, they have come a long way in a comparatively short time.
selgazzar@thenational.ae
* Additional reporting by Adam Bouyamourn
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