Kenya asks Qatar Airways and Ethiopian Airlines to deploy cargo flights in a bid to meet Valentine’s Day flower demands in Europe Kenya has asked Qatar Airways and Ethiopian Airlines to deploy additional cargo flights in a bid to meet Valentine’s Day flower demands in Europe.
Kenyan flower growers are currently experiencing shipment delays, hence the reason for bringing in the additional airlines to help ease up the situation.
Kenya is Africa’s largest flower exporter and the Valentine’s Day celebration usually accounts for as much as 50% of the country’s annual flower shipments.
It’s Valentine’s Day today and as always, flowers are among the most favoured gift items. In Europe, demands are high. And Kenya, which is one of Africa’s leading producers, is racing to take advantage of the opportunity.
Business Insider Africa gathered that the East African country has enlisted the help of Qatar Airways and Ethiopian Airlines to supplement the efforts of existing carriers (including Kenya Airways) in shipping the flowers.
Apparently, Kenyan flower growers are currently experiencing shipment delays, hence the reason for bringing in the additional airlines to help ease up the situation.
Qatar Airways was given five “additional ad-hoc flights” to freight the flowers from Kenya to Europe between late January and mid February, while Ethiopian Airlines was given 24 flights to do same. This is according to Gilbert Kibe, the Director General of the Kenya Civil Aviation Authority, who spoke to Bloomberg.
It should be noted that Kenya is Africa’s largest flower exporter and the Valentine’s Day celebration usually accounts for as much as 50% of the country’s annual flower shipments. Typically, the flowers are exported by being placed in the pet spaces of passenger flights. However, during peak seasons characterised by huge Valentine’s Day demands, said pet spaces become inadequate to transport all the needed flowers.
As the the CEO of Kenya Flower, Clement Tulezi explained, the freight demand for Kenyan flowers during the Valentine’s Day peak season is usually 5, 200 tons. And even with the efforts that have been made to introduce more freighters, shipment capacity would still be short of 2000 tons.
He further explained that in addition to lack of cargo space, increasing air freight charges is also another problem Kenyan flower growers are having to deal with. It costs an average of $5.70 to freight a 1 kg load of flower from Kenya to Amsterdam and other parts of Europe.
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