The Egyptian capital hosted on 30th March 2016 the Port of Koper day. The event was organized for the first time in 2015 and this year’s event attracted once again more than 100 participants, from local exporters, forwarders and logistic operators, to representatives of Egyptian ministries and various business associations.
In the opening speech Mr. Medhat El Kady, chairman of the EIFFA (Egyptian International Freight Forwarding Association) stressed the simplicity of doing business with Luka Koper and the Koper’s port community, pointing out that only four documents are needed in the customs procedure, making the whole process much easier and faster. Mr. Marwan El Sammak from the Alexandria Businessmen Association emphasized the long standing good cooperation with Koper port community.
The head of the Maritime Transport at the Ministry of Transport, Tarek Ghoneim, added that Koper is one of the most important hubs of transportation for Egyptian crops to the central and eastern Europe. In 2015 around 800.000 tons of various Egyptian cargo (mostly paper, cellulose, timber, cars and reefer goods) passed via Port of Koper in import and export direction, which represents a 36 % increase compared to 2014. An important segment of this traffic are reefer goods, mostly fruits and vegetables. In this respect Koper is the most important gateway for Egyptian grapes destined for Europe
Representatives of Egyptian exporters associations confirmed Koper is getting known among their members for its effective services, which is proved by the recently restored potato exports, but also by the growing imports of apples for Egyptian market. The growing volumes are also a consequence of better container services which were established in the last year. In total there are 6 weekly services connecting Koper with Egyptian ports, 3 of them are calling Koper first on their route in the Adriatic, resulting in a very competitive transit time. The president of the management board of Luka Koper, Mr. Dragomir Matić, stressed the importance of this regular connections: “After years of efforts, we can finally make a step further due to the improvements in container services linking Port of Koper to Egyptian ports. This is a chance we cannot afford to miss.”
