“Africa is a large and diverse continent, and the venue for the FIATA World Congress in 2019,” reports David Logan, CEO of the South African Association of Freight Forwarders (SAAFF).
      “This is a continent with massive reserves of natural resources and a fertile environment that allows for the cost effective production of food.
      “More recently, many countries have started to realize the potential to manufacture goods, and many companies such as those in the automotive industry have invested substantially over the past several decades. As such, VW, BMW, and Ford all have major investments in plants in South Africa, Kenya, and Nigeria, to name a few.”

Air Cargo Is Also A Vital Resource

      “In some countries, air cargo is the only feasible means to service some markets (such as in some of the more remote mining locations in the DRC, for example) and companies like Kenya Airways have grown exponentially as they have tapped into intra-African trade and the need to move people and goods into, through, and out of the continent.
      “South African Airways also has extensive continental coverage and uses Accra and Dakar as a springboard for the long-haul sector into the U.S., to either  Washington or New York.”

Speeding Flow Of Goods

      “Maybe in the near term at least Africa will not be as seamless as the EU, but hold on for a minute.
      “Africa has embraced a number of trade facilitation measures and a number of governments and NGOs are working tirelessly to rid certain trade lanes of various barriers to the free flow of trade,” Mr. Logan insists.
      “Most intra-African trade is by road and as attractive as this is, it can be fraught with interruption.
      “However, these recent initiatives have liberalized corridors to the extent that transit times have reduced by 20 percent on average. The trend seems set to continue; the University of the North West in South Africa has undertaken some pioneering work as they electronically monitor cross border trade movement per journey. The results to date are exciting.
      “Airfreight definitely suits the movement of equipment for the extractive industries and the movement of retail goods. In some routes, it is cheaper to move a container for merchandise by air than it is to move it by road!”

Where Is The Action?

SAAF On The Move

      SAAFF, a member of FIATA, was formed in 1921 and is a national association with members throughout the Republic of South Africa.
      While SAAFF attends to matters of national interest, its constitution permits regions to form chapters of the association to deal with local issues. Five regions have qualified to establish their own chapters: Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal, Eastern Cape, Western Cape, and Border.
      Learn more about SAAFF here.
Geoffrey