Elenteny Imports – Operations Update: Week of Sep 14th – Sep 18th
Reefer Availability – France We are still experiencing reefer availability delays from France. The problem is not causing serious delays at the moment, we are continuing to keep an eye on the situation and we’ll let you know if the situation worsens.
This year’s wine harvest may be the most challenging ever. For more details click here.
The Port of Los Angeles August Y/Y Container volumes increased ~18%, more details may be found here
Strike in France September 17, 2020 Major French trade unions have called for a national strike on Thursday, September 17, 2020. Dockworkers will participate in the strike action for at least 2 hours on that day so we expect container terminal gate in and gate out operations at the ports will be impacted.
New Sales Rep Series on the Alexi Cashen Podcast – an interview tour of sales reps from across the country talking about their city and selling wine during COVID -19, how the art of sales has changed and how it’s stayed the same.
Elenteny Imports Announces a New Less Than Container Load Route to Seattle. The full press release may be found here.
FDA Renewal Season – FDA bi-annual renewal season is almost here. Starting on October 1st, foreign suppliers will be able to log in and renew their FDA registration.
A new step has been added to this process. Each supplier must file for a DUNS number prior to being able to renew their FDA registration. We HIGHLY RECOMMEND contacting your suppliers to make sure they are aware of the upcoming renewal season and they can access their account. Click here for the full notice we received from the FDA.
Regional Updates
South Africa: Shipments at Cape Town continue to experience delays due to terminal operations slowdown over COVID-19 (labor and cleaning closures). Vessels are queuing outside the port region awaiting berthing space, and some carriers are starting to omit port calls.
Latest Updates
- Move over, boxed wine. Canned wine is on the scene. What do you think about alternative packaging for wine? Click here for the Wine Spectator article.
- Read about 2020 beverage industry predictions from Punch
- The TTB and the confusion of categories and politics, read the story from SevenFifty Daily here.
- Black-owned businesses in the drinks industry. Vinepair is developing a database of these companies. To check the list, or add an entry, please click here.
- Look for the red banner at the bottom of our web page dedicated to our latest updates elentenyimports.com
How to Plan
We encourage you to prepare for longer than usual scheduling times to work around holidays, supplier availability, and bookings. Please reach out to us to schedule your shipments as far in advance as possible.
Distribution Updates
We continue to see a steady and encouraging order volume to off-premise accounts in our Direct Markets. Although some states are announcing partial re-openings, our warehouses have not yet announced changes to their delivery schedules or pick-up policies. We will, of course, notify you as soon as we learn more.
In the meantime, warehouses continue to operate with limited staff, resulting in delayed turnaround times for physical requests and inbounds. FDL’s delivery schedule has been updated and may be found here.
Helpful Resources
- For more information on the impact of COVID-19 on global freight operations, including a country by country overview, please click here.
- Read the most recent highlights from Nielsen, published August 25th.
