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We stay with you

COVID-19 Update

April 2, 2020, 11AM (CET)

OUR EMPLOYEES AND PREVENTIVE HEALTH MEASURES

The health and safety of our customers and employees remains our top priority. As one key action for protection we’ve transferred this week our whole team of 130 people into a Remo-te-Home-Office-Mode. Therefore we are already today well prepared if governmental restric-tions will be getting stricter.
You reach us continously by phone, E-Mail and Video-Chat.

OUR SOURCING POLICY

We traditionally source our raw materials from the world’s leading quality producers. The sig-nificant majority of them is located in North America (US, Canada). Furthermore we source our ingredients actually from South America (Chile, Equador, Colombia, Argentina), Europe (Spain, Greece), Africa (South Africa) and Asia-Pacific (Australia, New Zealand and Thailand). From China we currently source no raw materials and also haven’t sourced in the last 5 years.

OUR QUALITY POLICY

Bösch Boden Spies strive for excellence in providing our customers with high-quality product manufactured under strict food safety standards of the world-leading producers. We are for many years IFS-certified on higher standard and monitor the quality management of our suppliers in a constant, close and trustful dialogues, which includes frequent audits of their processing infrastructure in the origins.

GENERAL SITUATION OF OUR SUPPLIERS

In response to the purchases of stocks by concerned consumers, we are currently experien-cing increased demand. At the same time, the sharp decline in shipments from China is dis-rupting supply chains worldwide. This can affect both the availability of containers and freight capacity. Nevertheless, we always endeavor to meet this requirement comprehensively in close dialogue with our major suppliers and will inform you about the current delivery situation if necessary.
The lead time for orders has increased due to trucking and shipping details. We kindly ask you to provide your shipping schedule and call offs as soon as possible

North America

As the number of confirmed cases continues to rise, state and local authorities in the US, and Canada have called for more stringent steps to be taken for local governments and businesses.

So has the California Department of Public Health instituted on March 19th a statewide „Stay at home“ Order for all residents except as needed to maintain continui-ty of operations of the federal critical infrastructure sectors. The Food and Agricultur Sector and also the Transportations System Sector are by the definition of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) part of these 16 critical infrastructure sectors, who have to run stable.

On Sunday, March 22th, further states as Delaware, Kentucky, Louisiana, New York follow and declared also „Stay at home“-Orders for their states. In total 18 states in the US ordered a lockdown-period for their people.

In the case of further restrictions and „Stay at home“ orders for further states, where our part-ners are also located, this regulation of CISA guarantees no limitations for the food-operations of our partners.

All our supplying partners in the US and Canada confirmed us last Friday, March 20th, in personal contacts and also in written form, that their operations actually run without any limitations. Plant production schedule and output is normal. Two suppliers in California are facing their first Covid-19 cases. The production facilities are being deep cleaned and disinfected to secure maximum health standards for the employees and the products.
Both partner fully intent on continuing operations during these coming months.

In order to their high food safety standards all our partners already have implemented many preventive measures like home-office work for their administrative people.

Our partners also confirmed an increasing demand for their fruits and nuts in their domestic markets fort he same reasons as in Europe. Nevertheless all of them see the longterm im-portance of the European market for their business and work hard for providing the needs of our customers in food-industry and retail.

We will continue to monitor the situation on a daily base in a close and trustful dialogue with all our supplying partners.

Australia

The government has ordered many restrictions but up to now not a general „Stay at Home“ resolution. Our supplying partners have proactively initiated many measurements for procteting their people like seperating shifts and homework for the administration. Production schedules run on a normal level.

South and Central America

Several governments in South and Central America have declared “state of emergency”, establishing, among other measures, the closure of borders. And others have enacted natio-nal quarantine (Ecuador, Honduras, Peru, Venezuela) to prevent the spread of the virus forcing the closure of our locations, which continue operating remotely. Both Colombia and Ecuador are in a lockdown.
In Brazil, on the other hand, President Bolsonaro urged relaxing the lockdown and restoring normality. Our local partners have established a multi-stage control system in production to ensure the highest level of safety for all employees.

Based on special permission as systemrelevant companies our supplier continue their regular schedules.

Europe

As the virus continues to spread across Europe, we are starting to experience the first im-pacts on logistics flows. Although all of our European sites and offices continue to operate, we expect delays with shipments due to increased health and safety measures at various bor-ders. In light of the US-imposed travel ban and the increasingly challenging situation in several European countries, we are reviewing the expected consequences and will provide further updates on this page. For the impact on the different transport modes please see below.

South Asia

With the increasing number of confirmed cases reported in several countries across South Asia, most of the local governments have stepped up their containment controls. These mea-sures include but are not limited to 14 days self-isolation for travellers, restricted community movement and border controls. We have enacted additional health and safety measures, and activating our Business Continuity Plans where necessary and required.
So government of Thailand has cancelled public holiday in mid April, which was scheduled for Songkran Festival (Thai New Year) in effort to minimize movement around the country, keeping people in area where they work and not go home to celebrate Songkran Festival. The public holidays will be moved to around July/August, date to be announced later by Thai government. Large events related to Songkran Festival has also been cancelled. Myammar goverment and Cambodia government has also asked their migrant workers to not return home for Songkran Festival. Thus, our supplier in Thailand will not be closed during mid April and will continue production. They will be adjusting our production schedule in the next weeks, some orders set for 2nd half April shipment onwards may ship earlier. We will inform order that will ship earlier than scheduled.

Africa

South African President announces a three-week lockdown over coronavirus on March 24th.

IMPACT ON LOGISTICS

Overall situation

We are working closely with our long-term carrier partners to have full transparency of the situation to address the needs and requirements of our customers. At this point in time, we can no longer assure lead times at their applicable rates. To the extent available, charter space will be offered at current market rates.

North America

In the US there are no known restrictions to movements of ocean freight shipments to or from North America as well as South and Central America. All essential services, such as ports and transportation companies, continue to run. However, due to decreased trucking capaci-ties, missing equipment and blank sailings, bookings may be rolled or delayed. We are moni-toring this with our partners on a daily basis.

South and Central America

Several governments in South and Central America have declared “state of emergency”, establishing, among other measures, the closure of borders. And others have enacted natio-nal quarantine (Ecuador, Honduras, Peru, Venezuela) to prevent the spread of the virus for-cing the closure of our locations, which continue operating remotely.

South Asia, Australia & New Zealand

At our supplying partners in Thailand, Australia and New Zealand seafreight logistics and overall supply chain remain stable with all trucking, customs clearance and warehousing op-erating as usual.

Actually the transhipment via Singapore is a new bottleneck, because the port is overloaded. It is therefore possible that containers have to wait 3 to 4 weeks instead of 1 – 2 weeks for further transport to Europe. Therefore the first containers with the new harvest of 2020 should not come to us by sea before the second half / end of April 2020, with around 8 weeks transit time instead of 6 weeks.

Africa
We see no major impacts on seafreight operational capabilities, but a decrease of volumes at most port terminals. At our supplying partners in South Africa seafreight logistics and overall supply chain remain stable with all trucking, customs clearance and warehousing operating as usual.

Europe

With continued blank sailings and the dynamic situation at various borders, impacts on our sea logistics business in Europe become noticeable. The suspended services from Asia have caused an equipment imbalance, with high demand for exports from Europe not meeting the supply of import equipment.

One significant bottleneck for our suppliers from spain is the port of Lisbon and also the al-ternative port in Setubal. Both are over-booked. Alternatives like cargo transport and shipment from the port of porto create additional costs.
Cargo transportation is still allowed in order to sustain the supply of goods. Italy, despite being the most affected country within Europe, continues to operate normal business. While the situation in each country is evolving daily as authorities impose new regulations and restric-tions, our local experts are at your full disposal to assist and support you with your specific requirements.

With more and more governments issuing new measures, the situation in Europe is evolving very rapidly. Even though we are working closely with a proven network of logistics partners, we experience serious delays at several European borders due to increased health and safety measures. This is having an impact on many other linked transport lanes.

Ferries between the European mainland and Finland are running. Sweden and Norway are accessible either via ferry or land bridge.

For an indication on border waiting times please consult the publicly available information via this link https://covid-19.sixfold.com/. As we cannot verify the data nor guarantee its ac-curacy, this link should be used for information purposes only.


For any country in Europe, we strongly ask to confrim the availability and readiness of warehouse personnel to receive shipments during business hours, before placing the orders with us and have our logistic partners take over the goods. Shipments which cannot be delivered due to absent consignees will be returned at their cost. Further-more, customers need to ensure that consignees will be able to confirm receipt of car-go.

Due to the challenging situation we ask our customers to place all orders with an ex-tended lead time and inform us in advance about any local or on-site restrictions or requirements that will have an impact on the transport planning.