Airfreight carrier Lufthansa Cargo has revealed it transported some 13,055 tonnes of fresh fruit and vegetables during the first six months, up 17.3 per cent on the same period of 2010.
As reported by Fruchthandel, the increase meant that the fresh produce segment outperformed the company's cargo operation as a whole, which saw a 14.8 per cent increase from January to June 2011.
Load factor, the measure of how full the carrier's overall capacity is, reached 69.1 per cent by the year's mid-point, while capacity itself was up 19.7 per cent.
According to a spokesperson for Lufthansa Cargo, the increase was attributed to the reactivation of freighters, which had been grounded temporarily during the recent economic downturn, and expansion in its AeroLogic fleet to a total of eight aircraft.
Meanwhile, a concerted marketing campaign, which took off in July 2010 to highlight in particular the freight capacities at its Austrian Airlines division, also contributed to the growth.
'Almost all the substantially increased capacity was sold in the market so that the load factor ended the first half at 69.1 per cent,' the company said.
Growth was particularly pronounced in the Americas, where tonnage climbed by 19.5 per cent, it added.
'Lufthansa Cargo has harnessed the robust development of the global economy and sustained the growth momentum from the previous year,' said group chairman and CEO Karl Ulrich Garnadt.
'We have made our network even more attractive with the addition of new destinations and invested to good purpose in the ongoing development of our products.'
