The Zambia Export Growers Association (ZEGA) says it is losing US$ 150,000 a day as a result of the restrictions of flights in Europe.
ZEGA Managing director Colin Rhoda said that the Association has greatly been hit by the move to cancel its flights due to the volcanic ash from Iceland.
He further disclosed that a large portion of its fresh consignments of vegetables and flowers meant for transportation to the European Market has perished.
Air travel throughout Europe and around the world is still disrupted as thick clouds of ash from a volcano eruption in Iceland continue to drift across the continent. Some European nations have completely closed their airspace, while others have enacted partial closures.
Thousands of flights have been canceled, leaving hundreds of thousands of passengers stranded and costing airlines hundreds of millions of dollars.
Officials expect air travel to be disrupted for several days.
The ZEGA managing director has predicted that the association might lose millions of dollars if the situation remains the same.
[Q FM]
BBCnews today reports:
Volcanic ash: Tesco delivers Kenyan produce via Spain
Tesco’s boss has said the supermarket has been bringing produce from Kenya into the UK via Spain as flights have been grounded because of volcanic ash.
Sir Terry Leahy told the BBC there had been disruption, but that it had mainly affected members of staff, as opposed to the 1% of its produce flown by air.
“We have helped Kenyan farmers by allowing them to send flowers and fruit to Spain, and collecting there.”
Sir Terry said that produce was being moved from Kenya to a hub in Spain, and that the firm was then picking it up for transportation by truck to the UK.
It came as the firm reported annual pre-tax profits of £3.176bn for 2009. The figure, for the year to 27 February, was up 10% on the previous 12 months.
The UK’s biggest grocer also said that there had been a 8.5% increase in group sales, excluding petrol. It said it planned to create 16,000 jobs this year, with 9,000 in the UK.
May be ZEGA can learn something from Tesco/Kenya arrangement.
Interesting times indeed..:-w
**== Chapwa my relative how are you, my prayers and blessings for you and your family. Yes indeed wonderous days. With all this, the golden continent is still the safest in terms of natural disasters; mother Africa. Thus the interest for our home my my. Let’s sort out our human disasters in Africa and change things period. Let’s start African intertrade period.
A number of Zambians could be stranded as a result of the volcanic ash – are there any bloggers with friends or relatives stranded abroad? Please share stories and launch an international campaingn to assist any Zambians affected by the current flight ban over Europe.
🙂 Multimillionaire that’s the kind of brain chemistry we all need. Zambia is bound to develop with that attidude. Great news I hear flights are scheduled to commence operations as of yesterday. As Zambians in the diaspora let’s make things happen those of us that can do
so materially should; others or all should pray aswell.