We have finally had our latest container of rice from Malawi released by customs in Grangemouth 2 weeks after arrival. Granted that it arrived off the boat on the Friday before a Bank Holiday weekend, it was nevertheless frustrating for ourselves and our customers to have to wait for so long while customs went through their processes.

The searching and x-raying of containers from outside the EU seems to be a long drawn out process at Grangemouth -our local port in Scotland. The delays inevitably add to costs and make the establishment of a sustainable supply chain for the disadvantaged producers we are working with that much more difficult.

We hope that we will have the opportunity to work with customs in Scotland to see if we can help in any way to bring the clearance of these consignments up to the speed achievable in the bigger UK ports.