With the launch of the Eurasian Fruit Basket Project, the cities of Mogadishu in the Northern Province and Kismayo in Juba Province were the first to take action.

The Port of Mogadishu is the most important port in the Northern Province, and the city of Kismayo is the mouth of the Juba River, which has an advantage over Mogadishu in terms of river-sea transport.

In the past, Kismayo's main export was bananas, with livestock, leather, canned food, etc., and there were modern slaughterhouses and small industries such as larger meat and fish canneries and tanning.

The same is true for the city of Kismayo under East African rule, while Mogadishu has a thriving cotton industry compared to Kismayo, and the Shabelle River is also an important region for the production of high-quality long-staple cotton in East Africa.

The long-staple cotton producing areas in East Africa are mainly divided into three major areas, namely the Shabelle River basin in the Northern Province, the Juba River basin in Juba Province, and finally the lower white Nile region in the Nile Province.

In this case, cotton is processed in all three places, and then semi-finished products are transported to textile hubs such as Nairobi, Mombasa, Dar es Salaam for further processing to meet local demand in East Africa.

Or directly as a raw material, through the port export, the market demand for long-staple cotton is very strong, so there is no need to worry about the market, these cotton is basically sold to Europe, especially in Central and Eastern Europe, which injects fresh blood into Germany and Austria, where the textile industry is more developed, and further enhances the competitiveness of its products.

Bananas and cotton are the industries promoted by the East African government, while the famous livestock industry in Somalia has shrunk and other specialty industries have developed, including leather.

This is related to the national conditions of East Africa, in addition to the abundant animal resources, East Africa should be regarded as the country with the largest number of crocodiles in the world, almost all over the country's rivers and lakes.

The same is true of the Shabelle and Juba rivers, which are dotted with wetland systems such as lakes and swamps in the southern part of the city of Mogadishu, the lower Shabelle River, and the large number of crocodiles, which is probably larger than the population of the entire Northern Province, provides sufficient raw materials for the leather industry in Mogadishu.

Crocodile intestines are a precious Somali dish for guests, and crocodile shows are one of Mogadishu's most popular activities, and Mogadishu is known as the "Kingdom of Crocodiles".

However, as mentioned before, there are basically crocodiles distributed throughout East Africa, so the crocodile leather industry in Somalia is not very prominent in East Africa, for example, the Limpopo River in the south of East Africa is also known as the "crocodile river".

However, the location advantage of the Somali region, and the distance from the main channel between Asia and Europe, make it an important export market for crocodile leather, not only from East Africa, but also from Europe and Asia.

The ports of Mogadishu and Kismayo under East African rule have undergone a refurbishment and have been upgraded in terms of hardware, but the relative commercial trade is indeed much worse than before, which is related to the East Africa's policy of closing off the country.

Mogadishu, an important regional trading centre, was interrupted by the conquest of the Ghreti Sultanate in East Africa, and the economic base of the Somali region no longer existed.

The decline of Somali coastal cities such as Mogadishu in recent years has accelerated the development of southern coastal cities in East Africa, such as Mombasa and Dar es Salaam.

Now that the cities of Mombasa and Dar es Salaam have developed, the port cities of Mogadishu and other ports have been able to receive more support from the East African government.

In August, the East African government mobilized the first batch of more than 200 construction teams from the south, most of whom were port designers and builders serving the East African government.

They began surveying and planning the ports of Mogadishu and Kismayo in an initial preparation for upgrading the port capacity of Mogadishu and Kismayo.

"The port of Mogadishu is still at the level of the old port of the former Gelti Sultanate, although it has been restored and maintained, but there is no essential change, it is a change of soup and not a change of medicine, it can only be said that the basic functions of the port have been restored at the beginning of its construction, but there has been no substantial improvement.

With the development of the Shabelle River basin and the future increase in population, the export trade of the Northern Province will be further expanded, so the expansion of the port of Mogadishu should be carried out on a large scale to demolish and rebuild the old port area and replan the functional zoning. Austrian engineer Ror Wendy, chief designer of the Mogadishu Port Renovation Project, told Mogadishu city officials after inspecting the Port of Mogadishu.

"Designer Rohrwendy, if the facilities in the port are demolished on a large scale, I am afraid that it will affect the foreign trade situation of Mogadishu City, so can this problem be circumvented!"

"If that's the case, the only way to do this is to open a new port in the south of Mogadishu, so that we can expand the port on time without delaying short-term business activities, but it will change the urban layout of Mogadishu because with the opening of a new port area, there will be more supporting infrastructure, and at the same time, the industry will change with the change of the port, and in the future, Mogadishu's industry and population will converge to the south," said Rhoerwendy. ”

"Does the opening of a new port also mean that we have to rebuild a city?"

"Well, if you don't have to go to the trouble of building a road from the city to the new port area, you can solve this problem, and as far as I know, you have the intention of creating a river-sea intermodal transport this time, which is a great advantage in planning a link between the Shabelle River and the port of Mogadishu."

Mogadishu is ultimately different from Kismayo in that it is located directly at the mouth of the Juba River, which saves the port of Kismayo a lot of trouble connecting to the Juba River, but the disadvantage is that the port will be desilted more frequently in the future than Mogadishu.

Although Mogadishu is a seaport and is close to the Shabelle River, it is still some distance from the Shabelle River and needs to be connected by road, and the lower Shabelle River is still a long way after actually passing through the city of Mogadishu and is an important irrigated agricultural area in the Northern Province and Juba Province.

"Of course, you don't have to worry too much, you can keep the old port and open up a new port at the same time, this is the experience of Dar es Salaam, now the development of the new and old port areas in Dar es Salaam is quite good, and it can even be said that Dar es Salaam completely surpasses Mombasa City for this reason, so this option is a good thing for the city of Mogadishu."

"Will the cost exceed the budget?"

"This is even more worry-free, originally according to the previous design, it was to rebuild a new breakwater on the basis of the old port, but now it is just to move its location to the south, the cost of the port will not be much higher, but it may be cheaper, but as I said before, you will have to re-establish the supporting infrastructure, so as to ensure that Mogadishu's business and trade will not be affected in the short term, and the bulk of the expenditure can be shared equally with the follow-up projects."

Rhorwendy's words reassured the Mogadishu City Government a lot, in fact, the main reason is that the current Mogadishu port is small and has a large space for renovation and new construction, which provides Rhorwendi with sufficient operating space.

"Then I'm sorry for you, Mr. Rorwendy, there are still two months left in the rainy season, so I hope you and your team can speed up the progress, and we will try to start construction next month, otherwise there will be some trouble after the rainy season comes, especially during the busy farming season, and the city of Mogadishu is not very well staffed."

(End of chapter)