Shipping delays kill wine export orders

New Zealand exporters face delays of up to six weeks as Ports of Auckland struggle to unload waiting ships. The logjam of ships unable to dock and off-load containers of stock is having a knock-on effect for local exporters trying to get stock out of the country. The lack of vacant shipping containers means delays are affecting exporters of all industries.

Nik Mavromatis, sales and marketing manager of Canterbury-based Greystone Wines says wine companies have been hit hard by outbound shipping delays.

The company has been told to expect six week delays before product can be loaded into containers to send to offshore markets. Freight forwarder Hillabrand is warning of such delays into the first quarter of 2021.

Greystone Wines has had another six-figure export order cancelled because they cannot get the wine to the export destination in time.

Mavromatis said the wine brand has recently lost one order it had hoped to get to China before Chinese New Year on February 12.

Mavromatis said Greystone Wines had spoken to New Zealand Trade and Enterprise (NZTE), who said all exporters were facing the issues.

Without tourism New Zealand is fairly reliant on exports. Nik Mavromatis

The Herald understands NZTE is in “high-level talks” with Ports of Auckland to resolve the delays.

“Without tourism New Zealand is fairly reliant on exports — we need to keep the engine of the economy running rather than delaying things. We should be doing better than we are.”

Greystone exports its wine to Australia, China, Britain and Canada, among others.

Graham Norton-endorsed wine company Invivo Wines is facing similar export headaches.

Rob Cameron, co-founder of Invivo, said the company faced a double whammy of delays, as it also waits on 100,000 bottles of its Graham Norton’s pink prosecco sitting in a container ship in the gulf.

The Waikato-based wine producer exports to the United States, Britain, Ireland, Europe and Asia, and is unsure if its wine order for Easter will get to Europe in time.

It works six to 12 months in advance for its global sales and promotions.

Cameron said the lack of containers available to Ports of Auckland was behind the delays in sending out export shipments.

“It’s frustrating for us, we count ourselves as very lucky as we’ve been in an industry that has survived well during Covid, but we really feel strongly for the many other businesses that have had such tough years and they are not going to get their goods into New Zealand or out of New Zealand to make their Christmas sales,” Cameron said.

Ports of Auckland spokesman Matt Ball said the global shipping supply chain had been disrupted by Covid19, and other ports too were experiencing delays with exporting goods.

“Ports around the world are congested, particularly import ports which have been flooded with much higher than predicted demand.

“We simply don’t have enough people to handle the current import peak, which started earlier and is lasting longer than normal import peaks. We are hiring more people to deal with this, but it takes time to both hire and train people.”