Welcome, Guest: Register On Nairaland / LOGIN! / Trending / Recent / NewStats: 3,153,521 members, 7,819,876 topics. Date: Tuesday, 07 May 2024 at 04:41 AM |
Nairaland Forum / Nairaland / General / Agriculture / Exporters, Shipping Companies Trade Blame Over Rejected Cashews. (455 Views)
Press Release: Exporters Debunk Yam Export Rejection Stories / Why US Rejected Nigeria's Yam - Audu Ogbeh / Who Has Info On Any New Cultivar/s Of Cashews (2) (3) (4)
(1) (Reply)
Exporters, Shipping Companies Trade Blame Over Rejected Cashews. by ashjay001(m): 9:19am On Feb 07, 2016 |
Exporters of cashew have blamed shipping
companies for the increasing incidence of
rejected cashew abroad while the shipping
companies have in turn said the exporters are
not entirely blameless.
The issue was raised at a stakeholders’ forum
where members of the National Cashew
Association of Nigeria met with operators of
leading shipping companies in Nigeria to
address issues of delays and rejected cashew
exports.
Speaking during the forum, the President,
NCAN, Mr. Tola Faseru, urged the shipping
companies to reduce the transit time for
shipping cashew from Nigeria, adding that the
time should be set at a maximum of 30 days.
He accused shipping companies of sometimes
keeping the product inside containers for as
long as 120 days, noting that such length of
time could damage cashew given its fragile
nature.
Faseru said, “Most of the shipping companies
don’t even understand. They just treat cashew
as one of those commodities. It is a sensitive
commodity that should not stay in a container
for too long.
“Shipping companies should help us improve
the transit time so that instead of the
commodity taking several months to get to its
destination, the transit time will be shortened.
We want that transit time to be reduced to 30
days.”
He added, “The moment the container stays
beyond 30 days, we will send a lawyer and the
shipping company involved will pay 100 per
cent cost.
“You know how it is when a commodity gets
back here in a bad state. There are claims that
come back to the exporters. This past year
there were huge claims that were given to the
customers. When the product is damaged,
the exporter suffers huge losses.”
In their defence, some of the shipping
companies represented at the forum blamed
the situation on exporters and terminal
operators, falsified and inaccurate information
from exporters and delays caused by Lagos
traffic when products were being moved to the
ports.
The General Manager, Pacific International
Lines, Mr. Verhaert Mathias, called for a look
at the entire supply chain instead of putting
the blame on the shipping companies.
According to him, 2015 was a difficult year for
shipping companies because of the slide in oil
price.
He said, “Ships were not full anymore and
some even pulled out and stopped doing
business because if they did not pull out, they
would sail empty and incur losses.”
He urged exporters to pay attention to
packaging details, adding that they should also
be transparent about the real volume of the
product they were sending out.
The General Manager of Hull Blyth shipping
agency, Paul Brethel, remarked that weather
differences in countries other than Nigeria
affected the quality of cashew when the
product was taken to those countries.
He said, “When you move a steel box from a
warm climate to a cold one, condensation sets
in. When there is warm season in Nigeria,
there is winter in South Africa and Nigeria’s
product has certain vices, so exporters cannot
turn around and say it is the fault of shipping
companies.”
Also speaking, the South Main Export Manager
for Maersk Line, Maureen Okojie, said the
decision on what went out was based on
imports, adding that because imports
nosedived in 2015, it had ripple effects on
exports.
She emphasised transparency on the part of
the exporters, stressing that shipping lines
needed to know if they kept dedicated
products and the length of time it would be
delivered.
Okojie added, “The issue of transparency
should cut across and NCAN should tackle
fumigation because some government
agencies go about with fictitious documents
passing the bills to the shipping companies,
claiming to have fumigated products that have
already been fumigated by exporters.”
Some of the shipping agencies blamed
terminal operators who had programmed for
imports instead of exports.
Copyright PUNCH. 1 Like |
(1) (Reply)
Cashew Nuts Needed In Large Quantity / My Journey / Watermelon And Fresh Pepper
(Go Up)
Sections: politics (1) business autos (1) jobs (1) career education (1) romance computers phones travel sports fashion health religion celebs tv-movies music-radio literature webmasters programming techmarket Links: (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8) (9) (10) Nairaland - Copyright © 2005 - 2024 Oluwaseun Osewa. All rights reserved. See How To Advertise. 17 |