The Minister-President of Flanders, Jan Jambon, together with a delegation of Flemish officials, diplomats and business people visited the Port of Riga. The Minister-President met with Ansis Zeltiņš, the Freeport of Riga CEO, at the Riga Freeport Authority and opened a meeting of Flemish and Latvian businessmen.

Addressing the Latvian and Flemish businessmen, the Minister-President noted the potential for international cooperation, especially in the port, logistics and wind energy sectors. The role of ports in both Flanders and Latvia was also highlighted, as they are the backbone of the economy, boosting the overall economic growth of other sectors, including country’s overall economic growth.

Ansis Zeltiņš, the Freeport of Riga CEO, stressed that ports are an important link without which trade and business relations in Europe would have been unimaginable: “Ports and merchants have historically united Latvia and Flanders since the time of the Hanseatic League. I am delighted that we are strengthening this cooperation today and will continue to do so in the future.”

The Flemish business delegation included several companies active in the offshore wind sector – investors in North Sea wind farms, developers of IT software for wind farms, providers of wind energy construction and engineering solutions, as well as manufacturers of wind turbine components and systems. Therefore the discussion focused on a wide range of cooperation opportunities with the Port of Riga and Latvian businesses in the field of wind energy. Flemish businesses were also interested in cooperation in transport and logistics, IT, dredging and construction, as well as real estate sectors.

The Flemish ports of Antwerp/Bruges, Ghent, Zeebrugge and Ostend have always been important cooperation partners for the Port of Riga. In 2023, 0.7 million tons of various cargo types were handled between Riga and the Flemish ports, representing 3.6% of the port’s total cargo turnover. Containerized cargo has always been the most important part of the traffic. Two of the six regular container shipping lines operating in Riga – MSC and CMA CGM – link Riga with the ports of Flanders.

In addition to containerized cargo, forestry and agricultural cargo are transported from the Port of Riga to Flemish ports. In 2023, around 32% of the total volume of peat handled in the Port of Riga was shipped to the Port of Ghent.