Nairobi — Shippers want transportation costs reviewed in order to lower the cost of production in Kenya and the Great Lakes region.

The Kenya Shippers Council Wednesday said Kenya's production costs were expensive due to high costs of transportation that account for between 40 to 50 per cent.

"These transportation costs make this region very expensive and cannot compete with other parts of the world that have been able to drastically lower the costs of transportation," said Mr Gilbert Langat, the Council's CEO.

Mr Langat said Kenya depended heavily on road and rail transport which have performing poorly due to varied factors.

The Rift Valley Railways performance, for example, has been wanting giving importers and exporters little option than to use the road, he said, adding that road transport faced challenges such as long waiting times at the borders and weighbridges due to the stringent customs regulations.

It takes approximately 12 days to transport cargo from Mombasa port to Kampala.

He was speaking Wednesday during a workshop on International Commercial Terms at a Mombasa hotel organised by the Kenya Maritime Authority, the International Standing Committee on Shipping and the Kenya Shippers Council.

The maritime director-general, Ms Nancy Karigithu, said there was also need to increase the revenues via taxes on transport and insurance services.