Fesco planning sea cargo services from Egypt and Morocco to Russia by the end of 2023

MOSCOW. March 14 (Interfax) - The FESCO transport group, whose parent company is the Far Eastern Shipping Company , or FESCO, plans to launch sea lines between ports in African countries and Russia in 2023, Andrey Severilov, Chairman of FESCO's Board of Directors, said.

"The first route we put in the second half of this year is the port of Damietta, Egypt to the port of Novorossiysk," Severilov said at the Russia-Africa: Cooperation as a Path to Sustainable Development international forum organized by the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs.

"Most likely, before the end of the year we will also launch separate routes from the port of Agadir in Morocco to the port of St. Petersburg," he said, adding that the service to St. Petersburg will be seasonal with a cargo of citrus fruits and avocados.

There are difficulties in logistics, mainly related to the existing imbalance in export-import cargo flows between African countries and the Russian Federation, Severilov said.

There is also an imbalance in the range of goods, he added. Thus, the main flow of cargo from African countries to the Russian Federation is of agricultural products, which are delivered in refrigerated containers, and the return cargo from Russia is delivered in standard containers. "We are forced to do an empty run of refrigerated containers in one direction and an empty run of standard containers in the other," he explained. This adds to shipping costs, and is a key issue, he said.