EXPANSION IN Africa is high on the agenda for Sri Lankan freight forwarder Expolanka whose president Hanif Yusoof has named four new destinations on the continent to be opened in 2007. “We want to add Burundi, Sudan, Congo and Zambia to our current network,” said Yusoof. The company already has offices in Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Ghana, Madagascar, Mauritius, Rwanda and South Africa. “We have shipments moving from Congo to Dar-es-Salaam and need to cover the entire line so that we have a presence across the borders,” he said in a recent interview with Lanka Business Online. The family-owned company, which started as a fruit and vegetable exporter when Sri Lanka’s economy was liberalised in 1978, now has 40 offices in 16 countries spanning the Indian subcontinent, Middle East and Africa. According to Yusoof growth in Africa is high with newer markets with a low base growing by 100 to 200% a year. “Expanding trade between Africa and China is boosting business,” he said.
