An industry briefing on the International Freight Assistance Mechanism (IFAM) extension was held this morning, 8 July.
The briefing was recorded and will be available on the Austrade website shortly – www.austrade.gov.au/ifam.

Summary of key points for vegetable exporters:

• IFAM has had an additional $241.9 million in funding committed by government to extend the program until late February 2021.
• IFAM has a focus on re-establishing connections for regional Australia, preventing job losses in regional towns, defending Australia’s historical agri-produce export markets and to provide time for exporters to evolve their supply chains to address the ongoing disruptions caused by COVID-19.
• IFAM has assisted flights to uplift over 37,000 tonnes of agri-produce to 50 international destinations from 9 departure points.
• In addition to importing PPE gear, medical and pharmaceutical supplies IFAM will import selected agri-chemicals, raw materials for infrastructure and telecommunications equipment.
• Airfreight rates are likely to remain steep and vegetable grower-exporters are reminded that the flight capacity will not return to pre-COVID-19 levels in the foreseeable future. Australia’s airfreight capacity is currently at approximately at 20 per cent from pre-COVID-19 levels.
• The IFAM operating model will remain unchanged, but the extension involves some scope changes:
  • To determine which products can utilise IFAM there will be a shift from a ‘commodity-based’ to ‘principle-based’ decision-making approach:
    • Products must be high-value, time sensitive and highly perishable
  • Maximum spread contributions to freight rates will reduce from 45 per cent to approximately 40 per cent
  • Charter cycle will extend from six weeks to 12 weeks
  • Booking window will extend from 48 hours to 72 hours
  • Cancellation fee policy has been updated
  • No additional Freight Forwarders of Airlines will be added to the official IFAM program – exporters can still utilise their existing Freight Forwarder
• Exporters were reminded that they must continue to collaborate, aggregate and consolidate shipments whenever they can.
• Converting from airfreight to seafreight is strongly encouraged where possible. The IFAM team will assess each request based on criteria including ‘Was the product historically airfreighted for export?’ and ‘Can the product be transported via seafreight?’.
• IFAM bookings beyond February 2021 are currently not being considered.

Please click on the following links to for more detail on IFAM:

• • Joint Media release: 3 July 2020 – Freight flights boost for Australian exporters
  • IFAM Factsheet – July 2020

To discuss IFAM further, please contact AUSVEG National Manager – Export Development Michael Coote on (03) 9882 0277 or at michael.coote@ausveg.com.au.