
Market Report March 2020
Dear Business Partner!
The corona crisis is demanding the full attention of all of us. We are all planning on a short-term basis and under these circumstances we feel unable to provide our typical market report.
The main focus now is on keeping the supply chain going in order to safeguard food supply.
- All necessary internal measures and precautions are being taken in a systematic fashion following our pandemic plan under the guidance of the crisis team of the Henry Lamotte Group: hygiene protection, decentral working from home offices, phone conferences, cancellation of all business trips and visits to our offices and obviously some pragmatic exceptions to the rule and improvisation.
- The same applies to all our service partners with whom we are in a constant ex-change: shipping lines, port operators, forwarders, customs and veterinary authorities, warehouse operators, subcontractors etc.. So far, the supply chain holds. There is sufficient capacity available, however, punctuality is suffering due to various delays along the line. Amongst others this is due to hygiene measures taken by recipients upon delivery, excessive waiting time at border checks between EU countries and e. g. the necessity to switch truck drivers when crossing borders like between Denmark and Sweden.
- he availability and delivery of goods from countries of origin is by and large ensured. Deliveries by truck from Italy are difficult to organize and expensive. Shipments from Spain and Portugal as well as Turkey are arriving by container vesselalmost on schedule. China is getting back on track and we do no longer expect problems with crops starting there now, e. g. the start of the asparagus season should not be facing restrictions. We are confronted with difficulties concerning tuna from the Philippines as the fishing port of General Santos, being a major tuna hub, has been closed. Furthermore, due to the shutdown of the Manila airport, documents required for clearance at destination can no longer be couriered. Peru has announced a 15 days curfew and factories there have been closed.
Similar measures will no doubt be enforced in further countries – we are liaising closely with our suppliers.
Click hereto return to the news overview.