Tropical North Queensland’s seafood industry has been given a major boost with Qantas securing a critical freight route between Cairns and Hong Kong.
Under this new agreement, Qantas will commence a weekly route from Brisbane-Cairns-Hong Kong. This new flight will commence on Thursday, 7 May 2020 and builds on the Qantas Sydney-Cairns-Hong Kong freight route already in operation.
Federal Trade Minister Simon Birmingham said these freight flights would be a major step in getting the local seafood industry back-on-track after an incredibly challenging start to the year.
“We recognise the current COVID-19 crisis has placed immense pressure on local seafood exporters, many of whom felt the earliest impacts when overseas demand began to dry up in January,” Minister Birmingham said.
“With demand returning, it’s absolutely critical local fishermen are able to their quality product out of the water and onto planes headed for key export markets such as Hong Kong.”
Assistant Minister for Forestry and Fisheries Jonno Duniam said the Morrison Government was re-connecting Australia’s seafood industry with the rest of the world.
“This is about making fishermen along the Queensland coast can get their high-quality produce back overseas so we can keep more locals in jobs and generate extra export dollars,” Assistant Minister Duniam said.
“By reducing the barriers our fisheries exporters face, they can get back to focusing on producing the best and highest-quality product in the world.”
Federal member for Leichhardt Warren Entsch said the first flight, leaving today was chock-a-block full of seafood sourced from local fishermen.
“This is exactly the type of support our local seafood industry needs right now given there aren’t any commercial planes flying in and out of Tropical North Queensland,” Mr Entsch said.
“With these flights now locked in, local lobster, coral trout and other fishermen from across region will have the certainty they need to get back into the water, knowing they can get their product to overseas customers once again.”
The International Freight Assistance Mechanism is part of the Government’s $1 billion Relief and Recovery Fund to support regions, communities and industry sectors that have been disproportionately affected by COVID-19.
Quite correct Phillip we still have Vietnamese ‘blubber’ fish fillets from the dirty Mekong Delta in our shops. Don’t know of any fresh fish from China except perhaps in tins. FNQ fishermen get a premium price for their exports of barramundi, coral trout and other reef fish. It is a niche market and does not impact greatly on domestic supplies. Australians would never pay the prices obtained for these species in Asia.Editor
WTF, I am certain that I saw Chinese and Vietnamese sourced sea-food in my local supermarket today. Why do the people of Hong Kong (China) want OUR sea-food, when they are exporting theirs to us. Again, WTF. They don’t want our barley (unless they can put an 80% tariff on it – so what tariff are they putting on our seaffood ??