Logistics Middle East – August 2019

http://www.logisticsmiddleeast.com LOGISTICS MIDDLE EAST | AUGUST 2019 27

cause as soon as you need to

deliver cross border, you’re

looking at two to three days

delivery time and customers

want next-day and same-day

delivery, and they want it

for free.

This is the key challenge

of cross-border e-commerce

in Dubai, according to Sand-

eep Ponnappa, general man-

ager, RSA Logistics, who told

delegates that greater im-

provement needs to be made

in achieving near-borderless

trade between GCC coun-

tries, especially the UAE and

KSA. “There is a disconnect

in how different countries

operate,” he said. “It depends a

lot on the category of the prod-

ucts and it has changed quite a

bit in the last few years, but this

improvement needs to continue

in order for us to become more

borderless in trade.”

Corneliu Pluteanu, logistics

manager, Al Ghurair Foods,

agreed that the trade between

the UAE and KSA has improved

in terms of lead times, but also

felt that it remains too long.

“If you look around this room,

we’re all consumers, we’re

all shopping online, and we

all want convenient and fast

solutions,” he said. “But the

huge challenge is getting goods

LEADERS IN LOGISTICS BREAKFAST | CASE STUDY

T

he Leaders in Logistics Breakfast, hosted
by Logistics Middle East in late June,
saw more than a hundred executives
from across the industry come together
to hammer out the challenges and op-
portunities in cross-border e-commerce
and last mile fulfilment in the region.

Cross-border e-commerce
Dubai has an extremely efficient cross-border operation for
imports and exports, but is it enough to facilitate the cross-
border sale of e-commerce goods across the region? This was
the question put to our panellists. Trade regulations such as
those put in place by Dubai Customs, have made Dubai the
e-commerce capital of the GCC. The vast majority of e-com
start-ups establish themselves in Dubai first because it has
the best regulations, and then as they scale-up, they open
warehouses in tier one and tier two cities in Saudi Arabia and
other countries in the region, but it remains an impediment be-