There are a number of different freight and logistics councils that operate in Australia that you can contact for help. While the branches are mostly state-run, they usually connect at a national level as a network. Councils and associations are non-partisan and should be able to supply you with information about freight forwarders suitable for your product, which service your area.
What doesn't fly is usually not what cannot be carried by air, but what will not be permitted in the air by law. Bet you never thought these things would fly:
V8 cars
Camels
Racehorses
Live goats
Mining equipment
The Flying Grocer
The Middle East is a hungry market with an appetite for our fresh produce, judging by their consumption of Australian fruit and vegetables. Chris Pardy, from Ernest Pardy & Sons in Sydney, estimates about 70 percent of their exports travel by air to their main markets in the Middle East and south east Asia. "We find that we’re getting orders which have to be acted on very quickly before the market changes, rather than taking three or four weeks to get there," he says. "We can react to the current market within 48 hours of placing the order and that’s mainly what we specialise in."
The tiny agriculture sector of the Middle East doesn't quite feed the region's population so as a result they import a lot of produce from Europe, Asia, the Americas and, of course, Australia. This works out well as it means that our seasons don't clash with their northern hemisphere imports. Ernest Pardy & Sons do well in their niche of specialising in stone fruit. "A lot of the tropical fruits come out of Thailand and other Asian countries, but we do the temperate fruits like peaches and nectarines that can't be provided by the tropical and subtropical countries," explains Pardy.
The business uses a freight forwarder for their air cargo "because they have better deals than we would have, dealing with an airline" but process all the sea shipments themselves through a shipping company—"I don't think a freight forwarder could get us better rates". Pardy says they looked for a forwarder who would be available at key times for providores, late at night and in the early morning, and someone "prepared to do a little bit more than the normal freight forwarder", a specialist for the perishables market.
Pardy is also a member of the Air Freight Export Council NSW, invited by the government to represent providores. Of the issues he discusses with the council, securing the cold chain and freight rates are two priorities. But, he says; "We’re very lucky to have a lot of airlines that fly here to offer a service to Australian perishables so freight rates are reasonable considering what they were 10-15 years ago."
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