Data-driven air cargo solutions are unlocking new pathways for health, food security, and local empowerment—optimizing pharmaceutical and perishable supply chains to deliver life-saving medicines, strengthen resilience, and support communities, both in accessibility to lifesaving medications and economical sustainability.
Air Cargo Dual Role
Air cargo carries a double opportunity. On the inbound journey, it delivers vaccines, medicines, and emergency health supplies to vulnerable populations. On the outbound, it can connect local farmers and producers to global markets through exports of perishables like flowers, fruits, vegetables and seafood.
The Food & Farm for Health Project is built on this dual role. Led by Pharma.Aero and TIACA, and developed in collaboration with the Humanitarian Logistics Association (HLA), the Cool Chain Association (CCA), and Fairmiles, the initiative analyzes global cargo flows, identifies gaps, and provides actionable insights to make humanitarian supply chains faster, more reliable, and more locally adapted. For vaccine and pharmaceutical supply chains, this matters enormously. Maintaining cold storage integrity, ensuring rapid transit, and securing last-mile connectivity are non-negotiable for safeguarding vulnerable populations.
From Data to Humanitarian Action
The project is not just producing research—it is building practical guidance, giving humanitarian actors a data-driven foundation to make better operational choices.
– Seasonality studies that align vaccine shipments with malaria, cholera, and influenza peaks, avoiding shortages or waste.
– Economic impact analysis to prove the value of smarter cargo flows for both aid and trade.
– Use cases demonstrating how optimizing return flights with perishables (flowers from Kenya, seafood from India) can fund more cost-effective health logistics.
Preliminary Analytics Show Diverging Trends
Early findings from the Food & Farm for Health Project highlight both opportunities and concerns for global pharma and perishables flows.
First preliminary analytics show already a few key trends when canvassing European pharmaceutical and especially vaccines flows. We see a global stability over the past years with a slight growth globally on pharma export with a strong increase of value per kilogram. Comparing this with the group of 20 sub-Saharan countries, we see a strong decrease in import of pharma from out of Europe, as well as a strong decrease in export of perishables out of these same countries for the same period, namely the period from 2020 until the end of 2024. This needs further investigation, as this might be an alarming trend or shift of global markets. Does this mean less accessibility to high-value healthcare products for these countries, while decrease of their agricultural export economy, or does Africa invest in imports in generic drugs with a documented growth of 8% from out of India in 2024 for example? The role of air cargo needs to be economically researched.
The Long-Term Gain
While the immediate benefit is clear – faster, more reliable delivery of essential medicines and aid during crises – the project’s implications extend further:
– Empowering local actors with better tools and knowledge.
– Enhancing coordination among global and regional stakeholders.
– Strengthening economic resilience by connecting local farmers and producers to international markets.
– Improving long-term health outcomes by laying the foundation for robust, trust-based systems of delivery in low- and middle-income countries.