Shipping disruptions send SMB planning into disarray |26 November 2004

Firstly, the company was forced to halt production at its animal feed factory for a three-day period last week when supplies of maize, which goes into the 15 different feed products manufactured at the factory, ran out before the next batch arrived.

Secondly, two containers of onions have had to be dumped after having been spoilt as a result of delay in their delivery due to shipping disruptions, the SMB explained Thursday November 25.

In the first case, the ship carrying fresh supplies of maize docked on Tuesday November 23 allowing the factory's 76 employees to restart operations later the same day.

According to the animal feed factory Assistant Manager, Brian Germain, production fell to zero on Friday, Saturday and Monday, from the normal level of 50 to 60 tonnes per day.

With the arrival of new supplies production has been upped to 75 to 90 tonnes while the factory attempts to replace lost stocks, sold to meet demand when production halted.

Citing "problems in global shipping" as the reason for the maize shortfall, SMB's communications manager Amitesh Banerjee said: "Consumers have to understand that we need imported raw materials to manufacture products here."

He added that shipments are booked months in advance preventing last minute additions when supplies run low.

Explaining the company's initial silence on the break in production, Mr Amitesh said "the reason for not doing that (informing the press of stop in production) is that it creates unnecessary panic in the minds of the customers."

As for the case of the spoilt onions, SMB said the consignment was fully insured and has caused no losses to the company.

SMB explained that the two containers, which were supposed to arrive on October 15, finally made it on November 1 because the vessel on which they were originally expected to arrive discontinued its fortnightly calls to Seychelles and was replaced by another ship.

As a result, instead of the usual 14-23 days it takes for the onions to reach Seychelles from India, it took a total of 39 days, and due to the perishable nature of the cargo, this delay resulted in the onions going bad, SMB explained in a communiqué.

Following an inspection by all authorities concerned – the plant protection department, shipping and insurance surveyors -- right after the containers were discharged at the New Port, the onions were found to be in an advanced state of decomposition and were condemned and declared unfit for consumption by the Plant Protection officer on duty, the communiqué said.

According to the communiqué the onions were disposed of on November 9 and 10 at the dumping grounds under the supervision of the plant protection department of the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources.