Belgium among most expensive countries to send parcels

Only Switzerland and Sweden are more expensive than Belgium when it comes to parcel delivery abroad, writes Money Talk. The postal service in Belgium is expensive in relation to other European countries because there is little competition between the parcel businesses, suggests the Belgian e-commerce federation BeCommerce.

De Tijd gives the example of a 2kg parcel sent using Bpost, which costs €6.40 within Belgium, and as much as €16.20 to a neighbouring country. That puts Belgium in 12th and 13th place in a ranking of 31 European countries based on the cost of their domestic and foreign shipments.

As for parcels addressed to non-neighbouring EU countries, it costs €32.40 to send a 2kg parcel from Belgium, compared to just €11 from the Netherlands. Only Switzerland (€39.20) and Sweden (€42.19) pay more.

According to BeCommerce president Patricia Ceyssens, Belgium is relatively expensive because there is little competition between parcel businesses. She expects players such as the Dutch PostNL to break open the Belgian market. "I am hopeful that there will be more competition in the coming years, which will bring the prices down," she says in De Tijd.