bees

Beekeepers move hives near Tullah in the Western Ranges of Tasmania.

By Agility Logistics Tasmanian General Manager Brett Charlton

I have recently been meeting with some of our exporting champions in Tasmania – this in itself is a privilege that I never take lightly – we have some incredible people and diverse companies in Tasmania that are exporting to points all over the globe.

That said, it has surprised me that a number of these companies have not taken advantage of the Tasmanian Freight Equalisation Scheme (TFES) for exports.

If you export ex Tasmania and cross that stretch of water between us and the big island and then transship onto an international vessel or an international aircraft to one of those points on the globe, you can claim money from the Federal Government.

A lot of effort from a lot of people went into securing support for the extension of the TFES to cover export shipments and whilst there has been good take-up of the scheme, all exporters should be taking advantage of this opportunity.

The Tasmanian Logistics Committee have been assisting Regional Development Australia (RDA) in a paper that will be released soon with case studies that show how exporting companies in Tasmania have been able to continue trading, expand on export markets, research and develop export markets, invest in their business and generally grow their business with the confidence of the TFES scheme in place for exporting cargoes.

If you are reading this article and are not claiming TFES for your export cargoes, please contact me and I will put you in touch with those who can guide you on how to access these funds – it is not that hard and you are entitled to them!

Speaking of export champions, I was recently invited to visit a honey hive operation in leatherwood country (near Tullah in the Western Ranges of Tasmania).

I have been involved in the export of honey ex-Tasmania for over 25 years – the growth of this industry and the respect of our honey on the world stage is a story in itself (for another day) – but, I had never been to the source or seen the process of a bee hive in operation. Let me tell you this….you have not lived until you have sat in a Tasmanian world heritage forest and drizzled fresh from the hive leatherwood honey over Tasmanian blue vein cheese under the shadow of the 350 year old tree the honey was made from.

Nor have you lived unless you have stood amongst 10 million bees (I kid you not) all hyped up on fresh nectar and somewhat cranky that their hard work is being swiped for us humans – it is surreal.

Logistics from my comfortable office chair in an air-conditioned second story office can be a tough gig (pfft I hear you say), but it comes nowhere near lifting 20 tons of bee hives in the middle of the forest with everything trying to sting you – they got me three times, but it was worth it!.

Three cheers for our honey exporters!