Two years on, and Covid is still affecting everyone, everywhere.
Shipping
The impact of the pandemic has been particularly noticeable with shipping. Aside from the freight increase from most shipping lines, Covid has created congestion at ports and shortages in equipment.
Additionally, the extreme weather conditions in some parts of the world, like floods and landslides in Canada, have delayed vessel movements.
These events have combined to create cargo accumulation, simultaneously reducing vessel capacity and increasing demands for vessel space, which the shipping lines are struggling to match. Due to these issues shipping lines will continue to have difficulties repositioning containers to the right places worldwide.
Warehouses
During the pandemic, some warehouses have been operating at a 50% headcount due to Covid infections (especially recently with the very infectious Omicron variant) which has caused slight delays in deliveries in some instances.
Tackling these operational problems has generated extra costs and delays in the shipment of coffee.
Staying Positive
Despite these challenges, the DRW team remain positive.
It has been a challenging time for everyone in coffee, but we will continue to operate as normally as possible. We are investigating solutions and working closely with our producer partners to get coffees to customers as soon as we can.
We thank you for your understanding in unprecedented times. If you do have any questions at all, please get in touch with the Logistics or the Trade Team for more information.
