The richest fishing grounds and the most perfect collecting and conditioning facilities of ornamental fishes will be seriously hampered by inadequate air connexions with their markets.
In the ornamental fish trade speed and safety are essential features of an efficient operation if the fish are to reach the markets in sound condition and at competitive prices. Because of the lack of proper transportation to markets abroad, several African countries have poor prospects to develop substantial exports of ornamental fishes.
Ornamental fish are considered by many airlines to be high-risk commodities to transport and as such they penalize them with tariff surcharges. The risk, in fact, of having high mortality rates in their consignments is not so much due to the nature or the packing of the fish, but to the carrier's lack of experience in transportation of such shipments. These shortcomings may stem either from an ignorance on the part of the airlines personnel about the fishes' basic needs, or from the rigidity of the airlines administration and technical regulations which create problems for the proper handling of the shipments. All airlines which, appreciating the interest of carrying regularly substantial shipments on the flights returning from developing countries in the tropics (flights usually made below maximum loading capacity), have efficiently adapted their service to meet the needs of such shipments. Given the standards or quality now requested from exporters for the fishes themselves or their packing, most losses in consignments of ornamental fishes occur through the airlines' failures to handle them properly or due to very cold weather.
There is a consensus between most reliable fish importers that shipments should not last longer than 36 to 40 hours. This includes not only the actual flying time, but - starting from the moment the first fishes are packed - the transportation to the airport, clearance through customs and airlines formalities, loading, etc; as well as upon arrival, the unloading off the plane, customs clearance, transport to the importer's fish house, opening of the bags and storage in the tanks.
To the actual flying time have to be added about 12 to 15 hours, and also the time lost in transit at intermediate airports, to calculate the total elapsed time during which the fishes will have remained in the narrow confines of their plastic bags. A shipment, having taken about 20 hours from first take-off to landing at its final destination, will in fact have imposed on the fish a 35–36 h confinement.
Transit at connecting airports is considered by most importers as the weakest point in ornamental fish consignments. Generally, at airports with the fastest handling, to unload an incoming flight and reload part of its freight on another aircraft takes about 4 hours (or longer if the boxes have to be put on pallets). This is thus the minimum time which an exporter has to keep in mind when planning the routing of his shipments. It might happen that at several airports, transit time might be extended to 12 hours or more, after landing time of the incoming flight.
Not only because of these delays are the fishes more prone to suffer from a decrease in temperature, especially when left in the open on the airport apron or stored in a cool room; but they may also be misplaced, not found in time, and miss a connexion. As a general rule, the slowest airports also offer the least satisfactory service to ornamental fish requirements.
Direct shipments from the exporting country to final destination should thus be selected, unless the carrier is an airline noted for its neglect when carrying ornamental fish shipments, such as loading in the heated holds, delays in bringing shipments to heated storerooms and delivery to the customers, and refusal to accept justified claims. Routings making use of more than one transit point should be avoided at all times as they multiply the risk of delays with connecting flights and poor ground handling.
Exporters have two different approaches to the problem of bringing their consignments to the markets. They either judge from past experience that the probability of long delays whilst the shipments are under way are low, and on the other hand that they are exporting from a very competitive market, involving several exporters, and freight tariffs are high. In which case they will put a maximum quantity of fishes in each box.
If the density is very high, for the type and size of the fishes, the incidence of freight on the cost of each fish will be lower, and the prices (provided accidental losses through delays in the flights are not too frequent) will be very competitive.
Those who pack light will be at a disadvantage in normal conditions, but their shipments will arrive in good condition when unforeseen circumstances delay the flights.
Packing the fish with a low density is accepted by importers when the mean value of the fish is high, freight costs relatively low, and suppliers few. In this case it has little importance for the sales potential if the f.o.b. price of the fish bears a higher percentage of freight and incidental expenses (packing costs, custom duties, etc.).
The policy to adopt by exporters in regard to the density of packing is thus a matter of individual choice within the framework of the market for their products and the problems involved in bringing them, with the lowest acceptable losses, to their final destination.
Too many exporters, although aware of the airlines' lack of experience in carrying ornamental fishes, make little or no attempt to obtain the collaboration of the airline to improve the handling procedures. They do not try, through talks with the staff in charge of the freight department in the airlines, to understand the administrative and technical apsects of freight handling.
The consultant made a practice of discussing at length these problems with the airlines he worked with and agreeing with them how the procedures of the carrier could eventually be adapted to fit the needs of ornamental fish shipments. Unless the airline is made aware of the large volume of freight which is annually transported for the ornamental fish trade this type of shipment does not receive any personalized attention from the airline. In many cases such discussions lead to a substantial improvement of the transport service.
Another fact of which new exporters are unaware is that return flights between developing countries and industrialized nations are often made with the aircraft holds half-loaded. In these instances the airlines are often ready to request on behalf of the exporter, an IATA Special Commodity Rate, which offers substantial reduction in freight costs for many commodities.
For ornamental fishes, the IATA code number for the Special Commodity Rate is 1024. These commodity rates are voted upon at regular IATA conferences and apply to shipments of a minimum weight (100, 250, 50 kg, etc.) from the airport of departure to nominally designated destinations. Without the SCR, ornamental fish shipments, like the shipments of all livestock, are penalized by a variable surcharge, calculated on the maximum freight applicable on the routing, which means a considerable increase on what the SCR could be. To make a successful application for an SCR, the exporter has to prove to the airline that it would otherwise be practically impossible to develop the export potential from any African biotope, in view of the competition from other sources exporting similar fishes under an SCR 1024 tariff. It is, moreover, in the interest of the airline concerned to fill its freight-carrying capacity. (Appendix 4 gives detailed information on routings, transit problems, bookings for shipments, freight rates.)
