The Corona Virus is threatening the coral industry in Indonesia

After a two year hiatus the coral farm industry in Indonesia underwent a transformation. Many farmers have closed shop and went to focus on other ventures like fishing or tourism related jobs. Just after the industry resumed operations with the implementation of new guidelines and rules, the pandemic created additional hardship for Balis Coral and ornamental fish export business. Even though the government has resumed to issue export permits and cites papers for farm raised coral in Bali and other locations in Indonesia, the realities of limited air travel have hindered operations. With tourism coming pretty much to a standstill the availability of airfreight is quite limited. Live coral can be only shipped via airfreight. We always look to find the most direct routes to minimize loss and insure the coral reaches its destination in the quickest possible way. Some of our fellow coral farmers have not been able to sustain another period without revenue and had to shut down operations. We have been lucky to be able to complete a number of shipments. However, our team at Blue Start Bali Coral Farm has had difficulties to complete orders to a number of destinations. We apologize to our wholesale costumers and promise we are diligently pursue shipping opportunities as they present itself. At the moment the few flights that still get airborne are used for crucial shipments of urgently needed goods. We expect to encounter difficulties in placing cargo as long as air traffic operates at historically low frequencies. As countries reopen and we return to our usual travel patterns we will return to a quicker turnaround on shipments. We will do what we can to expedite the process and resume safe operations as soon as possible. We are using social distancing and hygienic security measures to insure safety for our crew and the government officials we interact with. We will seek to complete your shipments as soon as we have the opportunity to do so. In the meantime we apologize for any delay our customers encountered and want to thank everyone for their patience. Stay healthy, stay safe. We are looking forward meeting you hopefully soon in our island paradise Bali.