Between a rock and hard place: why Ethiopia's exporters are trapped by air freight

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The across-the-board container reefer general rate increase introduced earlier this year effectively scuppered plans of Ethiopian perishable exporters to switch from air to sea freight.

In a speech at this year’s Cool Logistics Africa conference in Cape Town, Jan Prins, director of Ethiopian farm operator Jittu Horticulture, which is the country’s largest vegetable, rose and strawberry exporter, said that geography had both blessed and cursed the country.

Although in most people’s minds it is most famous for a devastating series of famines ...