17 March, 2022

Sudden Spikes in Shipping Hikes

It's rough out there in the high seas.

In less than a year, total ocean freight costs have quadrupled. For importers it's a helpless situation. Our logistics bills are beefed up with a stack of questionable sub-line items of which individually, one has even jumped twenty-fold e.g. the dubious "Peak Season Surcharge" went from $40 on one bill in 2021 to over $800 just now. 

We raise complaints, they shrug their shoulders. If you want your stuff, pay what you're told when you are told. The thing is, you can't plan for it either - you don't know what they'll do to your bill until your stuff lands at the destination port.

We've always accepted this variable as part of the importing game but when it's taken to such extremes, it's hard to absorb these hikes and stay afloat. This is just a heads up. As much as we always try to absorb cost rises, our prices will have to rise soon to cover some of these exponential jumps. That's not just us, that's not just tea. It's basically all imports. Brace yourselves.