What global supply chain crisis means for Kenyan importers

The Great Supply Chain Disruption has been characterised by delayed imports and exports for orders, shortage of supplies and rising custom duty.

A research by New York Times correspondent Peter Goodman recently recorded that there is a huge traffic jam at the Port of Savannah, the largest in the US.

Consequently, US President Joe Biden announced that there might have to be longer working hours for global brands such as giant retail chain Walmart, and shipping multinationals United Parcel Service (UPS) and FedEx to reduce delay in the global supply chain.

Locally, the chief executive of Importers and Small Traders Association (ISTA) Samuel Karanja said the disruption has caused inadequate supply of containers due to expensive freight.

‘‘A standard container of consolidated cargo costs $6,000 (Sh678,300) up from $4,000 (Sh452,000)," he said. "With this price hike, the end product gets affected due to delay.

"Unless we have other companies emerging to be suppliers of containers to compete with the big boys, there is no other immediate measure to control this global problem."

Khalid Kairo, a luxury cars importer in a recent interview exposed the plight of the industry due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

“We have had major delays with the ships because of the pandemic. Schedules had to change last year. We get our cars from Singapore, Japan and UK but these economies have been hit with recessions,” he said, adding that high taxes were compounding the problem.