.We started to export grapes to South Africa from Egypt back in 1997. We first started with flame seedless, followed by a variety called king ruby, as it was late variety, and we can sell well while no grapes available in SA market, or any other African country, even in cold storage. Later on we started shipping red crimson seedless which was almost new in Egypt, and we were sending grapes to one importer ( we consider him a partner and still working with him ), he used to sell grapes to supermarkets like Woolworth and Pick n Pay, we continued sending grapes for years solely, until later on many other Egyptian companies started to send grapes as well, and market was open as such since 1997. Thanks to the big efforts exerted by Egypt air officials at that time, who helped a lot to find spaces on the flights of Cairo to Johannesburg, and moreover, they changed flights to a bigger flight to accommodate demand for grapes. I remember head of the commercial Dept., late Ahmad Qasim, booking office Mr. Kamal Gaber, operation: Mr. Rida Ghaly, and central booking office who supported the cargo booking office to accommodate Egyptian grapes exports to South Africa. We have to also mentioned Mrs. Esaad Mandour, and moreover, we mention with gratitude the efforts of Chief of Egypt air Late Major General Faheem Rayan, all bookings and follow up were done through Cargo Air Freight Agent, Vinus, headed by the respectful Haja Samia. Later on, we started to send grapes via sea to Durban, from Port Saied East, using the then famous Safmarine, along with Maersk the Giant, and continued with Maersk after it acquired Safmarine. Vessels Departs from Egypt to Durban via Algeciras in Spain, this voyage at that time was around 32 days. We started to send grapes to Kenya, Mombasa sea port. It was and still a good market for both grapes and oranges. We received orders from landlocked countries like Uganda, Rwanda, Congo Kenshasa, etc. We used to take Mombasa port, which we consider the Eastern gate of Africa, to send grapes via road to Uganda, Rwanda, Congo, Juba,. We used Mombasa port also to send oranges to peace keeping forces in Mogadishu in Somalia, and used Djibouti recently in sending grapes via road from there to Ethiopia. We sent grapes and oranges to almost most of West African countries, including Gabon, and Angola. We sent grapes and oranges to Burkina Faso via Cote d’Ivoire, Abidjan, and to Cote d’Ivoire itself, more over we sent fruits to Cameron and from there by land to both Chad and Niger, port of Douala Cameron. It happened in late 2000/2001 that we sent fruits to Angola via Walvis Bay in Namibia, when there was no possibility to send directly to Luanda. We continued to send fruits to Senegal, Togo, Ghana, Benin on the Wester Coast of Africa, however, sending shipments to the landlocked countries was a challenging job in terms of extra transportation cost. But we succeeded to do so. I want to recall that earlier, transit time to the Eastern gate of Africa, being Mombasa, estimated at 27/28 days. What I noticed is that after the new Suez canal was constructed, and vessels waiting time in Suez canal reduced by almost 8 hours, this helped the vessels departing port Said East to reach Salalah earlier, and this helped to catch the earlier connection to Mombasa, as such transit from Egypt to Mombasa downed to 15/18 days only. This is one of the advantages of the new Suez canal, which many may not have noticed this, but I because I am highl