Transit Conference TRANSESTONIA 2012

09:00 Registration and morning coffee 

09:30 Conference opening speech – Juhan Parts, Estonian Minister of Economic Affairs and Communications
Minister Juhan Parts will focus in his keynote speech on Estonian highly attractive economic environment, unique tax-system and logistical advantages, which all together have turned Estonia into a business paradise. Delegates will learn from the Minister’s presentation, what kind of governmental support can be expected when considering investments and business activities in Estonia.

10:00 Estonia as the Food Hub – Illimar Paul, Development Manager, Estonian Logistics Cluster
Different foodstuffs, beverages and animal feed have played important role in Estonian logistics and transit history for centuries. Estonia has, thanks to it’s geographical location, turned into a Food Hub as a result of centuries long evolution. Effective distribution range of the Estonian Food Hub covers territory with 300 million consumers. Estonian Logistics Cluster has researched in depth the opportunities for bringing the concept to a new qualitative and quantitative levels, which will be introduced by Illimar Paul.

10:30 ECR powered Estonian e-Food Hub - Aleksei Dobryshman, Business Development Manager, Edisoft
One can probably predict, there is no competitive and attractive to customers business model or service out on the market today, which doesn’t have anything to do with state of the art technology. This is valid also in case of the Estonian Food Hub concept, where quality, reliability and security of the information are key drivers. Aleksei Dobryshman will give an insight into the mysterious system architecture of the Estonian Food Hub’s ICT platform, where several stand alone services are integrated into a complex system, providing unbeatable user experience and turning the challenges into solutions.

11:00 Coffee Break 30 minutes

11:30 Foreign trade dynamics of foodstuffs for the markets serviced by the Estonian Food Hub – Evelin Puura, Head of Foreign Trade Statistics Service, Statistics Estonia
The Food Hub concept develops along with the imported food consumption in the catchment area of Estonia as a distribution center. Most important markets served are the Nordic countries, Baltic states, Russian Federation, Kazakhstan, CIS and Central-Asian countries. Presentation of Statistics Estonia will give an overview of the trends and patterns in consumption of imported foodstuffs and beverages on the listed markets.

12:10 Foodstuffs handling in the Port of Tallinn – Ain Kaljurand, Chairman of the Board, Port of Tallinn
Port of Tallinn is a main gateway for the foodstuffs from other continents. During last decades there has been a shift in transportation technologies. Traditional bulk and break-bulk shipments are being replaced by containers. This trend and Port of Tallinn’s role in the Food Hub concept will be introduced by Ain Kaljurand, Chairman of the Board of the Port of Tallinn.

12:35 Food distribution by rail to Russia, CIS and Central Asia – Janek Ojamäe, Head of the Container Department, EVR Cargo
As the global containerization goes on, EVR Cargo (part of the Estonian Railways) is developing it’s block train operations. There are regular connections between Tallinn and Moscow, Minsk, Kiev, Dnepropetrovsk, Astana and Almaty. Other destination in Russia, CIS, Central-Asia and Mongolia are serviced via transshipment hubs. Block trains for Afghanistan depart from Tallinn every week. Container traffic on Estonian Railways has increased by about +70% compared to the year before. Janek Ojamäe introduces in his presentation food related services of EVR Cargo.

13:00 Lunch 60 minutes 

14:00 Estonia as a Strategical Hub and Distribution Centre – Mart Melles, Country Manager, Katoen Natie
Global leader in the contract logistics Katoen Natie has decided to expand it’s activities in the Baltic Sea region, and construct a large facility in the Muuga Harbor (part of the Port of Tallinn). Foodstuffs play important role in the business of Katoen Natie. Food Hub services provided in Estonia to the customers allover the globe will be introduced by mr Mart Melles, Katoen Natie Country Manager in Estonia.

14:30 Value Added Food Hub Services – Erkki Veismann, Member of the Board, Alekon Cargo
Alekon Cargo, as a member of the Estonian Logistics Cluster is one of the companies providing the Food Hub services to it’s customers. Erkki Veismann will introduce the range of value added services most often requested by the food shippers and buyers, depending on who is in charge of the stock in the Estonian distribution center.

15:00 GoSwift: Estonian electronic border queue - Hannes Plinte, Chairman of the Board, Girf
Estonian Food Hub is based on a geographically advanced location, well developed transport infrastructure, attractive economic environment, skilled professionals, plus innovative and intelligent ICT solutions like GoSwift. Hannes Plinte from a software development company Girf introduces the Estonian electronic border queue system GoSwift launched in August 2011. As a result of this innovation, there are no more physical border queues at the Estonian-Russian border, thanks to what millions of euros have been saved. For importers, exporters and transport companies GoSwift means absolute predictability, what comes to the border crossing time. 

15:30 Coffee Break 30 min

16:00 European Route E20 and Estonian Food Hub – Martin Venning, E20 Coordinator, United Kingdom
Estonia is located in the crossroad of several important transport corridors, with European Route E20 as one of them. E20 is a west-east United Nations (UNECE) defined route covering 1880km spanning Northern Europe from Limerick (Ireland) to St Petersburg (Russia). Countries involved besides Ireland and Russia are United Kingdom, Denmark, Sweden and Estonia. The route E20 connects some of Northern Europe’s largest, most prosperous cities and regions. With Estonia bordering the vast opening market of Russia, E20 has huge potential to be a corridor of opportunity for commercial activity in the 21st century.

 16:45 Estonian Food Hub seen from the Manufacturer’s and Trader’s Perspective – Mikael Orkomies, Partner, Excedea
Excedea is a leading management and investment advisor in growth markets in Eastern Europe and Asia. With a long history in emerging markets, Excedea has delivered over 120 growth strategy formulation, M&A, performance improvement projects and market analyses in over 30 countries in their focus regions. Exedea has helped several food companies to open up or expand their operations in Estonia and to use Estonia as a regional hub. Partner of Excedea Mikael Orkomies will introduce some case studies with explanations, how and why the decision to go for Estonia were made.

17:30 Conclusions – moderator Raivo Vare, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of the Estonian Development Fund
Wrap up of the conference, which alone will be worth listening to, will be made by the conference moderator Raivo Vare. Chairman of the Supervisory Board of the Estonian Development Fund mr Vare is a respected expert in the fields of economy, logistics and foreign relations. He was the Estonian Minister of State 1990-1992, meaning in the period of regaining the country’s independence.   

 18:00 Reception 90 min

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