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Oct 30, 2013 (newstodate): Large volumes of supplies for the ISAF forces in Afghanistan are shipped via the Baltic region - and Lithuania and Latvia are fighting among themselves to attract the business.
So far Latvia has kept its leading role in this logistics setup, benefiting from the short distance between Riga's seaport, rail connections and Riga International Airport.
During the first nine months of this year, Riga Airport has handled a total of 34,136 tonnes of cargo, the overwhelming majority of which are ISAF shipments.
Since 2009, the Afghan traffic through Riga has reportedly comprised more than 88,000 TEU, of which 70 percent were carried by land, 15 percent by rail and another 15 percent by air.
Shipments have also gone through Lithuania, but on an irregular scale and mostly comprising shipments of frozen food, and Lithuania does not compare to Latvia as to the benefits from easy multi-modal logistics.
So far Latvia has kept its leading role in this logistics setup, benefiting from the short distance between Riga's seaport, rail connections and Riga International Airport.
During the first nine months of this year, Riga Airport has handled a total of 34,136 tonnes of cargo, the overwhelming majority of which are ISAF shipments.
Since 2009, the Afghan traffic through Riga has reportedly comprised more than 88,000 TEU, of which 70 percent were carried by land, 15 percent by rail and another 15 percent by air.
Shipments have also gone through Lithuania, but on an irregular scale and mostly comprising shipments of frozen food, and Lithuania does not compare to Latvia as to the benefits from easy multi-modal logistics.