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Kenyan farmers seek to benefit from the Dubai Flower centre. |
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8/19/2006 9:40:30 AM |
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Kenya's future in the horticulture industry will soon be revolutionised following the recently opened state of the art, Dubai Flower Centre (DFC).
Dubai is fast becoming a hub for trade in plants and cut flowers for the Middle East and African regions, and there are fears that traders operating from the DFC will be seeking to take some of the 'Africa to Asia', perishables traffic away from Amsterdam.
The US$70 million infrastructure operating as a free zone finally blossomed and recently became fully operational.
In its first 10 days of operation, the centre handled a total volume of 3,475 tonnes of perishables. It has the capacity to handle 180,000 tonnes of perishable products a year.
DFC's Managing Director, Ian Strachan says that Dubai is strategically located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia and Africa.
The Emirate is headed to become a global floriculture logistics hub potentially threatening Dutch pre-eminence.
It is estimated that about 60 per cent of the global flower trade passes through Dutch auction houses.
According to sources in the industry, most of the horticulture farmers in Africa will prefer to route their produce through Dubai because of its tax-free status while shippers can save time and money in the delivery chain, connecting more than 15 flower-producing countries with markets in Asia, Africa and Middle East.
The centre's management however insists that it is not seeking to take business away from the Netherlands but that it will open new trade routes for perishable goods between Africa and Asia, just as Miami did between Latin America and the United States a decade ago.
The 24-hour operations of DFC, now guarantees a prosperous future to Kenyan farmers who look forward to not only boost the country's economy but also transform their own living standards.
And to make the freight services even more easily, and viable, a private investor is building a fully-fledged warehouse in Eldoret, which would cater the needs of horticulture farmers in the region.
From the Eldoret warehouse, farmers will now be able to air-freight their produce directly to Dubai, including other European markets and hence cut down on the perishable time frame.
Eldoret International Airport manager, Harrison Machio when contacted over the telephone said farmers would reduce their costs if they exported flowers to overseas markets from Eldoret instead of transporting them by road to the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) in Nairobi.
"The main markets for DFC's flower imports will be eastern and southern Africa - Kenya, South Africa, Zimbabwe and Zambia - as well as Tanzania, Uganda and Ethiopia.
"The other important markets include India, Sri Lanka, Thailand and China. DFC seeks to be more than just a logistics hub," says Strachan.
He noted that DFC has allocated 73per cent of the offices and 62per cent of the warehouses at the moment.
"There is a waiting list of companies who want to have a chamber or warehouse, but we would like to have a good mix of international major players with different strategies, products, sizes and from different parts of the world.
Turnkey solutions ensure the implementation of the cool chain process from the aircraft arrival until pick-up by consignee, together with additional services such as vacuum cooling, rapid cooling, storage at different temperatures and hermetically sealed bays for ethylene producing products.
The external architectural design of the ultramodern DFC, which is situated in the vicinity of Dubai International Airport's Cargo Village, reflects the concept of a green house and due to the sensitive nature of the cargo, a temperature of 1.1°C must be maintained in most of the flower centre's internal spaces.
The other facilities at the complex includes laboratories, quality control operations, customs inspection, break and build areas and specialized cool-storage chambers, companies can add value or process their products for onward transfer
"The main handling operations for import, export and transit takes place on the ground floor of the facility.
"Its computerised tracking system enables exporters and importers to track the flight status, shipment loading and the temperature of their products throughout the supply chain.
"This is supported by a rapid and efficient handling, which is aided by a fully automatic system that safeguards quality and maximises shelf life," Strachan. Explained.
The complex is supported by Dnata Cargo and its DACS+ system (Chameleon), for terminal handling activities to ensure efficient transfer of perishable cargo.
Buyers and sellers will benefit from the potentials of the new centre as it will be much more feasible as Dubai has all the necessary logistics infrastructure in place, that includes a number of leading airlines that operate here.
For the horticulture farmers, who are closer to this region, it makes absolute sense to tranship their produce from here to save on costs as well as speed, considering the short span of perishables. |
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