The Houthi attacks on Red Sea shipping that have savaged Kenyan horticultural exports over the last two years have been officially paused, leading to a rapid return of shipping through the Suez Canal, including a phased return by the world’s largest shipping line, Maersk, that begins this week.

For Kenyan fresh produce exporters selling fresh produce to their biggest markets in Europe, air freight offers only limited volumes at relatively high prices, meaning most of the country’s trade is sent by sea.

Normally, reaching Europe takes around three weeks, although some routes can reach Italy in as little as 16 to 18 days. To Northern Europe, the sea transit has typically taken 20 to 28 days. However, these journey times shot up when shipping lines were forced to abandon the Suez Canel and route instead around South Africa.

Over the last year, lines have been offering delivery on these new routes in 37 days, but sometimes taking up to 50 days, seeing fresh produce that can only viably last for around 40 days ruined on arrival.

Kenyan exports have slumped as exporters searched for new markets they could still reach from the end of 2023 and on into 2025, with two further devastating attacks on commercial ships in July this year. 

Some exporters have also been reported to have lost heavily offloading produce at auction rather than risking shipping delays.

However, the absence of further attacks and the breakthroughs in the Israeli-Gaza conflict, which was the trigger for the Houthi attacks, have seen a slow return to the canal, with French shipping line CGS sending a first ultra-large cargo ship across the Red Sea in early November.

On November 10th, the Houthi military issued an official statement saying it was pausing the attacks, which had seen the average number of ships crossing the sea fall to 38 a day through 2025, compared with around 74 a day in 2023, and caused ballooning insurance costs.

CGS now has further cargo ships crossing the Red Sea, and the world’s biggest shipping line, Maersk, last week announced a strategic partnership with the Suez Canal Authority (SCA) and its intention to resume shipping through the canal “as soon as conditions allow”. The SCA said Maersk’s return to the canal would be a phased return beginning in early December 2025.

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