The business for shipping fresh produce out of Egypt is absolutely booming. One shipping company has been doing it for 40 years, with their anniversary this year. One thing the company has learned; one can never have enough reefers, as there is always more produce to carry across the globe.
The shipping company Transmar is based in Egypt and focuses mainly on the trade across the Red Sea, the Gulf trade and the trade in the East of Africa. Ahmed Samy is the Sales Manager of Transmar and has over 14 years of experience in the business. According to him, the business of carrying fresh produce out of Egypt is absolutely booming: “We see a rise in popularity when it comes to citrus from Egypt. The Egyptian citrus is known for its exceptional taste and is suited to eat fresh, or to be used for juices. Overall the citrus production is increasing along with the demand, as we see increased demand from countries like the Netherlands, Belgium and the United Kingdom. For instance; in 2018 Egypt has exported 1.5 million tons of citrus.”
It’s not just the citrus that is being shipped in larger volumes, says Samy: “When we take a look at potatoes, Egypt exported around 800,000 tons. When it comes to grapes, 120,000 tons was exported. Then of course we can’t forget about our onions, although 400,000 tons of onions were shipped last year, we’re seeing a change in the seasonality of the produce. Due to climate change, it’s just about possible to cultivate onions year round in Egypt. Then we also have the strawberries and pomegranates. As you can see, Egypt has a lot to offer in terms of fresh produce. Transmar focuses mostly on citrus, potatoes and onions, as their destinations are part of our trade routes.”
With a lot of its competitors being global shipping companies, Transmar takes pride in specializing in a select few Egyptian trade routes: “Of course there is a lot of competition in Egypt, but honestly nobody has to be in each other’s way. In Egypt there is always more room to carry produce, as almost none of the competitors are able to take all cargo. This means there is also room to grow for anyone with ambition, which takes us to the state of our company. We’ve very recently increased our reefer fleet by almost 60 per cent, to be able to expand our business even more.”
The new reefers have only been in action since the end of February, so they are brand new. Samy is satisfied with the quality of their new reefer fleet. “The reefers are equipped with the latest technology, so when we say state of the art, we actually mean it. Without wanting to get into too much technicalities, the newer technologies allow us to control the temperature in the containers with much more precision and are able to reach the desired temperature a lot quicker. The reefers are meant for our business partners who deal in fresh produce. Another cool thing about the reefers is their ability to add new specific modifications.
Expanding the fleet was one step, another step is to expand in territory. Although it’s not Transmar’s first priority, we’d still like to see if we can get a foothold in other Gulf markets, Indian ports and maybe even some Western-European ports. With our 40 year anniversary coming up, it’s also important to remember the mission our founder Mr Moustafa El Ahwal held in high regard when he started the company; so here’s to another 40 years of keeping promises!
For more information:
Ahmed Samy
Transmar
Email: A.Samy@transmar.com
www.transmar.com