As an employee and later an entrepreneur, I have been involved in the production and marketing of cut flowers from Kenya since 1994. Regularly, things happen that disrupt the market. This is part of doing business, and usually a suitable solution comes along. I have written about this on multiple occasions in recent years, but these days things are being made very difficult for us. This time the problem is aviation, which is crucial for fresh cut flowers.
First of all, fewer planes are available for air freight from Nairobi to Europe. This is mainly due to the robust demand for cargo generated by online sales of products from Asia. In this sales model, web shops deliver products directly from factories in China to consumers in the rest of the world. They may have higher freight budgets, but the fact is that more and more airlines are avoiding Nairobi or reducing the number of flights. Apparently, it is easy to do the math.
This column is not meant to be a lament, and I would like to end the year on a positive note. However, the reliability of airlines seems to be declining when it comes to the weekly flight schedules agreed with airline handling agents. All too often, planes are out of service for various reasons – either technical or AOG: aircraft on ground – or flights are simply cancelled, usually without any additional aircraft being deployed in the following days. Airlines seem to prefer the markets (Asia) where they can charge higher fares. The agreements in place are apparently unilateral and mainly favourable to the airlines. And to think that a few years ago, these airlines were kept afloat artificially, with the help of governments.
