As the Gulf conflict enters its fifth day, companies say they have become accustomed to adapting to logistics disruption
Latin American exporters are taking a measured approach to the Iran war as the Middle East conflict continues to widen. After years of disruption to global shipping, companies have become more adept at dealing with the fallout of such crises that have tested the resilience of supply chains.
Jose Antonio Castro, CEO of Agrokasa and president of Peruvian avocado organisation Prohass, told Fruitnet: “The world is already adept at adapting to these shipping crises. In the last five years alone, we’ve experienced three such crises, which have undoubtedly impacted transit times, frequencies, equipment replacement, rates, service quality, and so on.
“We must also take into account the current situation in comparison to previous crises, considering the number of new ships and refrigerated equipment (entries minus departures) added to the international supply.”
Iván Marambio, president of Frutas de Chile, said the country’s fruit industry is closely monitoring international events and their potential effects on global trade, especially regarding possible disruptions in the logistics chain. “So far, we do not foresee any significant impacts on consumers or the season’s progress,” he told Fruitnet.
Currently, shipments to the Middle East represent approximately 1.5 per cent of Chile’s total exports and consist mainly of apples and kiwifruit, which, unlike other fruits, have good storage capacity and withstand long journeys.
“The main shipping routes for Chilean fruit continue to operate normally. Asia is supplied via the Pacific, the US primarily through the Panama Canal, and Europe (via Rotterdam) is not experiencing any significant disruptions,” Marambio said.
“We are in constant coordination with the various stakeholders in the logistics chain and hope that the contingency plans activated by the shipping companies will safeguard the operational continuity of international trade, respecting the transit times for each product.”
The impact of the latest war in the Middle East is already being seen in the form of higher prices. An importer in Dubai confirmed that price of imported fruit was set to rise significantly since most of the shipping lines had stopped services to Jebel Ali.
“We have three containers of grapes at the port which sold at the double the original price – black grapes, Red Globe, everything. We notice that the price of everything is going to increase, but we don’t know until when,” the importer said.
Regarding citrus shipments to Dubai, he said ““we should find a way to load it to Jeddah and then bring it in by truck”.
