Export route via Syria open

Deal with Falcon for maritime routes to KSA

Agricultural products will now be shipped to the Saudi Arabia (KSA) and later to the rest of the Gulf markets through a new ro-ro route via Egypt. Dubai-based Falcon Shipping will be in charge of transporting the goods.

The ferry line will run from the port of Tripoli to Egypt’s Domiat port. The trucks will then travel by land to the port of Suez where they will board a ferry and be shipped to Douba, KSA.

The new route will be launched starting May 11. Between two and four trips will be scheduled each week. Ghada Ahmad, Operations Manager at Falcon Shipping-Lebanon, said: “We will start off with one trip per week to see how things go. Later on, trips will gradually increase to four per week.” According to Ahmad, one ferry boat could carry between 77 and 142 trucks.

The time needed for the entire trip from Lebanon to the KSA is around three days, less than that required for land shipping through Syria, which requires four days on average.

The cost for transporting a loaded truck from Lebanon to the KSA is $4,100. It costs $1,250 to go from Tripoli to Domiat or Port Said in Egypt. Customs fees range between $300 for shipments going from Egypt to KSA and $325 from KSA to the rest of the Gulf countries. Exporters currently also pay transit fees for crossing from Egypt to the KSA of $600 per truck. They pay transit fees on their way from the KSA back into Egypt: $100 for empty trucks and $300 for loaded trucks. These fees will be greatly downsized once Lebanon and Egypt sign a Memorandum of Understanding for land transit.

“We are trying to cut down the cost, making it even lower than the overland transport fees,” Ahmad said. Under normal conditions, it costs an exporter $4,200 to hire a refrigerated truck to ship agricultural goods by land to the KSA. However, the cost of overland shipping increased due to the ongoing conflict in Syria.

Hussein Daher, Business Development Manager at Gezairi Shipping, confirmed that the international land route through Syria was reopened after two months of complete closure. “Transport routes to Syria and the Gulf are now open through the two border crossings of Arida and Jdaidet Yabous,” he said.

According to Daher, if the land transport route is pened for good, maritime routes would shut down 80 percent of operations