Typical port-to-port sailing days from Alexandria, Damietta, Port Said and Sokhna to the destinations Egyptian reefer produce actually moves to, plus the days to add either side of the sea leg.

Transit times from Egypt run from three days to Piraeus to around thirty days to Shanghai, and the sea leg is only part of what a buyer waits for. A reefer booking has three separate clocks: the days between confirmed order and gate-in, the port-to-port sailing days, and the days between discharge and release at destination. Quoting only the middle number is how arrival dates slip. The table below gives the sailing leg for the routes Egyptian produce actually moves on, and the sections after it give the figures to add at each end.

Loaded reefer container of Egyptian orange cartons before the sea leg, where transit times from Egypt begin
The sailing clock starts at gate-in, not at the moment the container is stuffed.

Port-to-port sailing days by destination

Typical port-to-port transit times from Egypt on reefer services, 2026/2027. Ranges reflect direct versus transhipment routings and vary by carrier and week.
DestinationUsual load portSailing daysRouting
Piraeus, GreeceAlexandria, Damietta3 to 4Direct
Mersin, TurkeyAlexandria, Damietta3 to 5Direct
Jeddah, Saudi ArabiaSokhna, Damietta5 to 8Direct
Genoa or Vado, ItalyAlexandria, Damietta5 to 8Direct
Valencia, SpainAlexandria, Damietta6 to 9Direct
Constanta, RomaniaAlexandria, Damietta6 to 9Direct or via Piraeus
Novorossiysk, RussiaAlexandria, Damietta7 to 10Direct
Jebel Ali, UAESokhna, Damietta8 to 12Direct or via Jeddah
Rotterdam, NetherlandsAlexandria, Damietta10 to 14Direct or via a Med hub
Felixstowe, United KingdomAlexandria, Damietta11 to 15Usually transhipment
Hamburg, GermanyAlexandria, Damietta12 to 16Usually transhipment
Nhava Sheva, IndiaSokhna, Damietta11 to 16Direct or via Jebel Ali
Mombasa, KenyaSokhna13 to 19Usually transhipment
Port Klang, MalaysiaSokhna, Damietta16 to 21Direct or via a Gulf hub
New York, United StatesAlexandria, Damietta16 to 22Usually transhipment
Chattogram, BangladeshSokhna, Damietta18 to 25Transhipment, often two legs
Apapa, NigeriaAlexandria, Damietta19 to 26Transhipment
Shanghai, ChinaSokhna, Damietta26 to 33Direct or via Singapore

Add 4 to 8 days before the vessel sails

Between a confirmed order and the vessel leaving, the shipment needs harvest and packing, cooling, phytosanitary inspection, the VGM declaration and gate-in ahead of the terminal cut-off. Cut-off on Egyptian reefer bookings is normally forty-eight to seventy-two hours before the estimated departure. Four to eight days from confirmation to sailing is a realistic planning figure on a crop already in season, and longer at the start of a season when the packhouse is still changing over.

Add 2 to 7 days after discharge

At destination, the container waits for discharge, then for customs and plant health clearance. In the EU that means the CHED-PP pre-notification and any documentary, identity or physical check at the border control post. Two to three days is common where paperwork is clean and the consignment is not selected for a physical check; five to seven days is normal where it is. Transhipment routings add their own risk, because a missed connection at a hub can put a further seven days on the clock without any warning to the shipper.

Choosing the load port changes the number

Sokhna sits on the Red Sea and saves the Suez transit on anything moving to the Gulf, the Indian subcontinent or Asia. Alexandria, Damietta and Port Said are the Mediterranean options and are shorter to Europe, Turkey and the Black Sea. Our comparison of Egyptian export ports covers reefer plug capacity and congestion at each one, and the guide to booking reefer space for the citrus season explains the lead times that decide whether you get the sailing you asked for.

PEI Trade is the exporter, not a neutral reviewer. The figures above are planning ranges drawn from carrier schedules and our own bookings, and any single sailing can fall outside them.

Get the current schedule for your route

Tell us your discharge port, the crop and the week you want to arrive, and we will send back the sailings open on that lane with cut-off dates and the transit each carrier is quoting. WhatsApp +20 10 9911 1918.