Excerpt:
Grower/shipper implications
But what does this mean for growers and shippers?
Andres Ocampo with HLB Specialties in Fort Lauderdale, FL says it had trucks stuck at the border four to five days. “They didn’t make the crossing on Friday. Those trucks only made it to our warehouse Wednesday evening. It’s a big impact on our supplies,” he says.
Instead, Ocampo had to postpone or cancel orders that were to be delivered over the weekend or on Monday. “All those orders were lost. We moved around what we could. But if you don’t get there on time, it doesn’t mean the next order is going to be double. It doesn’t work like that so we lost a few trucks worth of sales.”
He says mid-week, movement through the border was still slow, albeit not blocked as it had been the few days before. And while alternative, smaller bridges were considered to move shipments, they weren’t designed to accept the influx of trucks that would likely move through that route.
However, Ocampo says the quality of the produce doesn’t seem to be impacted. “We lost those orders and the product was a few days delayed. But nothing that should worry us too much because we were able to resupply fuel to the cooling units,” Ocampo says.
“The best case scenario is seeing slow movement through the month. Worst case scenario we may see new blockades of truckers waiting many more hours than normal crossing into the U.S.,” says Ocampo. “We’re ready for a difficult four weeks ahead and we’ll see how it plays out.”
Read the full article here: https://www.freshplaza.com/article/9419264/shippers-watchful-of-texas-mexico-border-blockades-and-inspections/
Publication date: Fri 15 Apr 2022
Author: Astrid Van Den Broek
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