AirAsia eyes durian flights as part of farm-to-table food push

AirAsia Group is mulling flying thorny, pungent durians around the region as part of a plan to use its trucks and planes to send food straight from farms to restaurants. The airline’s agriculture e-commerce platform Ourfarm has a network of 7,000 trucks for pickups and deliveries in the Kuala Lumpur area, and is readying planes to quickly transport fresh produce including fruit, vegetables, meat and fish, into Singapore and Malaysia’s Sabah and Sarawak in the next three to four months. “It’s the durian season now and we’re working very hard to get them on board,” Ourfarm CEO Lalitha Sivanaser said. “The Singaporeans, the Thais, as well Indonesians have reached out for durian exports using our platform.” The coronavirus pandemic triggered disruptions in food supply chains around the world, snarling logistical operations and choking transport of fresh produce as multiple government lockdowns shut borders, closed ports and curbed trade. The crisis has also roiled the airline industry. “From an AirAsia perspective, the crisis has created an opportunity for us, by looking at a way for us to utilize our airlines facilities to build traffic for us,” Sivanaser said. <br/>