While Kenya inaugurates a pilot project of transport of flowers by rail via reefer container from Naivasha to the Mombasa port for export to The Netherlands, in Ethiopia international flower companies flee the country because of the worsening political instability. Semafor Africa reports that the north-western Amhara region, a key flower-growing hub, has suffered a major blow with regard to one of the country’s main exports: fresh-cut flowers. To take advantage of this situation there are the neighboring Kenya and Uganda, where the companies are relocating. After five Dutch companies (Tal Flower Farms, Tana Flora, Abyssinia Flowers, Dutch Flower Group and Alpha Flora) left the country, it is now the turn of Selecta One, a German company, which is planning to quit the country, leaving more than 1,000 local personnel unemployed.

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An interesting article published on Semafor Africa raises the problem of the low brand awareness of African brands by Africans and their general distrust towards them. In October 2021 we published on our blog a post where we argued that it is time for Africa to develop a collective trademark system capable to raise the visibility of African brands both a continental that extra-continental level. Semafor notes that a study on the 100 brands that are most-admired in Africa shows that 80% of them are actually extra-continental brands, concluding that Africans generally prefer foreign-made to local made products and services. Since brands are a vector of a country's image and identity, this translates into a poor visibility of those countries where such products and services are made, and of Africa in general.

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