In this essay, I will briefly discuss the factors that led to the witchcraft in Somaliland. Generally speaking, there has been a magic inflation or price increase in most commodities across the country whether it is fuel, food, construction materials, clothing, electronics e.t.c.

In fact, the increase in price has had a negative effect on the people of Somaliland, especially those who are weak or poor. Before we talk about the causes or reasons for the increase in the price of goods in the country, it is important to understand first that Somaliland is a country that has trade relations with most countries in the world, such as China, India, Turkey, United Arab Emirates. Emirates, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, countries in the continent of Europe, countries in the continent of America, countries in the continent of Africa and etc. This shows that any increase in the price of international products will have an impact on Somaliland products.

Somali people says "a common a disaster, is not a disaster". It is also important to know that most of the products that come to the country come in containers. When you look at the containers and all the different products that come to Somaliland, they come from all over the world as we mentioned above, but the four countries that bring the most products to Somaliland are listed below:

1. India:  rice, sugar, flour, marble, luggage, medicine etc. are imported from here.

2. China: Goods that are imported from China include clothes, shoes, furniture, electronics, communication equipment, etc.

3. Turkey: furniture, pasta, food, clothing, shoes, etc comes from it.

4. United Arab Emirates; cars, cooking gas, etc. comes from here.


It is also important to know that most of the goods that comes to Somaliland comes in containers, just like in other countries, the world has shifted to containers. Containers of all brands were in balance before 2019 or COVID19, which is the reason why there was never a shortage of containers in the world. Containers around the world are usually located in the following three locations:


1. Inland Depots:
Containers are kept or stored in various countries around the world, although Somaliland does not have anything called inland depots. These are places where the world's most containers are kept.

2. Cargo Ports:
are the ports in the world that are designed to place the containers both when they are full and when they are empty. This is where the two international containers are located. Somaliland has Berbera port which can handle 150,000Teus.

3. Onboard Containers:
These are the containers on board all the ships that are going to the world or want to dock at the world ports. This is the third place where the containers are can be found.

As I said above, let's skip it, and come to the importance of this text, which is the reason for the rise or increase in commodity prices.

In fact, the reasons that increased the rate of prices are many but I will mention here the most important ones and they are:

1. High Ocean Freight rates
In recent years, the cost of living containers has increased and it is estimated that the cost of living has increased four times in some places, or 400%. For example, in some ports in China, one 40-feet (1X40FT) container was delivered to Berbera port for $3,500 USD before 2019, but today the price is $14,000. Which is 400% or four times.

The current increase in the transportation price of containers is attributed to the following factors:

A: Container Shortage (Containers Shortage):
There is a container shortage in the world which is the reason for the epidemic of COVID19. As you are aware of the current disease of COVID-19, it started in Asian countries and then spread to the rest of the world such as Europe, America, Africa, the middle east and etc. In order to control the disease, every country has imposed restrictions on the movement of people (Lock downs), which has caused a great disturbance to all the trade and the economy of the world, and at the same time it has created a disturbance to the balance of the world's containers and the places where they are kept eventhough they are fetal. The lack of containers in some places, such as Asian countries, which is where we import most of our products from, while in some countries COVID-19 disease restrictions has caused the international containers in Europe and America to accumulate (above the normal),

B. Lack of space;
The outbreak of the COVID-19 disease caused the business to stop all over the world, this inreturn caused the container companies to let go of all the ships that were rented, in order to reduce the excessive cost of renting these ships because there is no work for them. As a result, every company has to release at least 50% of the container ships that were rented. Those ships that have set free have caused the price of live containers to rise because there is no transport or they have become limited.

C. Congested Ports;
When the COVID-19 restrictions were lifted and the ports were reopened, it caused a lot of work in most of the world's ports and the cost of shipping while waiting for the aid increased, and that increased the cost of the containers.

D. Lack of export:
Somaliland is a country that does not alot to export abroad and this has led to the fact that when containers are beeing transported to countries  that Somaliland is not considered very important compared to other countries that export and import goods. Because the interest of sea transport is to bring a full container to the port and take a full one out, and that is another reason for the increase in the cost of transportation. More than 97% of all containers that arrive at Berbera port are re-exported as empty containers. Go ahead.

E. High demand of empty containers in the world:
there is a great demand for containers in the world, such as Asian countries, especially India, and China to ship goods to foreign countries, and that is another point which increases the cost of transportation.

F. Reduce in Container production;
It was alleged that the three companies that produce the most containers in the world, which are estimated to produce 80% of the containers in the world, have reduced or reduced the production of containers, in order to make more money. And that is another cause of the rising cost of transportation. These three companies are called; China International Marine Containers (CIMC), CXIC Group containers company limited, and DFIC.

2. Demand for branded products increased (High Demand) The demand for certain products that have increased in the world, such as fuel, is what has caused the products to become more expensive.

3. Low Production
There has been a large reduction in the production process of the world which is due to the pandemic of COVID19, this has caused the products to become more expensive because the production is very small. And it's only natural that whenever production slows down, prices rise.

4. High production cost
If the materials needed to produce something become more expensive, the product produced becomes more expensive. Similarly, if the raw materials are not available or in short supply, the price of the product will increase. For example, the high price of oil in the world has caused many goods to become more expensive.

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Written Khadar Hawdo,
Translated by By Mohamed Abdi Jama