The transport cost to Europe is the main disbursal faced by Kenyan exporter of horticulture product , such as flowers . The air load diligence is well - break in Kenya and highly flexible to meet demands . The ocean freight rate industriousness of sassy green groceries , however , is less developed and could become many times larger .
The Netherlands Embassy in Nairobi is very keen to further explore the potency of ocean freight for exporting flowers from Kenya . Therefore , a sketch among key market place player was carried out to get a estimable sympathy of their views on the potential bottlenecks and opportunities regarding the further ontogeny of sea transport as a viable alternative for air freight .
atmosphere shipment challenge sparkle a new wave of interest in ocean freightFrom conversation with interview importers , traders , and retailers , it seems that we have entered a new wave of interest in ocean freight . As some of the respondent said , " late air freight rate capability and cost issues are the independent driver for the current quickening in ocean consignment exploitation . "
In the preceding ten long time , a lot of knowledge has been gained , and there is now a universal feeling that most of the hardheaded requirement of sea freight have been mapped out and that people more or less bed what is take to prepare and put to death a sea freight shipment properly . A few interviewees with experience in ocean freightage suggest that sea freight could then theoretically be planned well , and the resultant is better quality than air freight because of fewer temperature fluctuations .
Still , several pragmatic and commercial care stay . The big challenge of ocean freight rate , accord to importers , pertain to logistics , such as the comparatively low arrival frequency and unorthodox and irregular arriver times . Other business organisation relate more to commercial-grade considerations , such as a strong ' 24-hour interval fresh ' refinement in the heyday trade and demand for flexibility .
High expectation for ocean freightInterviewees ask that the overall share of sea freight of flower from Kenya reaches 25 to 50 % in five years . While traders in the florist distribution channel calculate a range from 0 to a maximum of 30 % , some of the companies who provide retail chains believe that a shifting towards ocean freight of at least 50 % of the total volume will occur within five years .
Based on the stimulation of interviewed food market thespian , the study proposes a hardening of recommendations and postdate - up steps in four areas : business environment , logistics , establishing best practices , and industry preparation .
Final considerationsOne of the interesting lesson from this study is the reflexion that the of late increased sake in sea load has mainly rise up from the problem in air freightage . With this in mind , it can be close that one of the most effective ways to stimulate the evolution of sea freightage is by discouraging air freight . As more and more governments are serious about reducing CO2 emission and making business deal insurance policy more sustainable , we can await this to happen anyway .
It is simply a must for Kenya , in the farseeing run , to offer products with a golden carbon footprint . Otherwise , Kenya will progressively lose out in the European market to regionally grown products and suppliers that have a gloomy carbon copy footprint .
For more information : Ministry of agriculture , nature and food quality of the Netherlandswww.government.nl/en
