Africa's startlingly high logistics costs

The extent to which Africa’s high logistics costs are stifling perishable export growth was brought into sharp relief in statistics revealed by Dr Augustine Langyintuo, senior operations officer for agribusiness with the International Finance Corporation in Kenya. According to Langyintuo, airfreight, handling and insurance charges sometimes account for nearly 50% of the total cost of producing, packing and delivering vegetables to Europe. Freight costs are a strong determining factor of a country’s export competitiveness, he said. “Logistics costs pitched at 13.5% of GDP are too high when compared with the USA and other main trading partners – and if exporters from Africa want to compete on the global market, lower logistics costs must be a top priority,” he said.