(Finance) – The crisis in the Red Sea and the diversion of the transit of merchant ships, with extension of travel times by 15-20 daysmade the cost of containers and he put exports are in difficulty of our seasonal products. “There is already a negative effect on our exports and an increase in costs in the use of containers and freight for all routes”, he explains Cristian Marettipresident of Legacoop Agroalimentarewho adds “the fresh produce and olive oil are affected”
“They get there continuous reporting from our cooperatives for blocking and for the risk of attacks container ships carrying our goods run in the Red Sea. To suffer from it they are also the Atlantic routes because the lengthening of the routes from the Cape of Good Hope requires 15 more days of available vehicles due to a new supply bottleneck”, explains Maretti.
THE costs of the ships reached the levels of two years ago, when there were no cargo ships to transport the goods and prices were skyrocketing. A bottleneck in international traffic that passes through the Suez Canal and which does not find a valid alternative in transit by train from China to Northern Italy. Long times, costs and speculation aside, fresh goods are especially in difficulty.
“For the agri-food sector there is the issue of the shelf-life times of fresh products which do not allow the journey to be extended by 15/20 days. Fortunately, this problem arose after important products, such as kiwis, had already ‘passed’, while for apples we are still halfway through. Naturally in a sector dominated by the seasonal nature of production, the quantification of damages will depend on the duration of the blockade“, explains the president of Legacoop Agroalimentare.
Olive oil was also penalizedwhere “there is a doubling of costs as it has been mandatory to transit through Africa to reach Japan and Taiwan since mid-December”.
Export problems are calling into question internal repercussionsas “if the products are not exported, the risk is to flood the Italian and European markets with dramatic effects on prices which will undoubtedly collapse“, underlines Maretti, adding “2024 opens with a new big problem for our cooperatives”.