STEPS FOR FDA RENEWAL/DUNS NUMBER REQUIREMENT 2020. The FDA renewal period for 2020 began on October 1, 2020. This year’s renewal includes an additional step of obtaining and updating the registration with the facilities Unique Facility Identifier (“UFI”) otherwise known as the facilities “DUNS number.” Detailed instructions may be found here.
Elenteny Imports launches a new referral program. We are grateful that many of our existing customers value our services and in turn, are kind enough to tell other people in the industry about our services. Referrals are the biggest compliment a company can receive. As a way to say thank you to customers who believe in us enough to tell others about what we offer, we have put this new program in place that recognizes referrals and the customers they refer with free cases. Click here for more details.
US import bonanza could extend into 2021 on ‘record’ restocking. No one predicted a U.S. import surge in the middle of a pandemic — but it’s happening. The big question now is: How long can this last? The answer has key implications for ocean spot freight rates and contract renewals, port throughput, and landside volumes for trucking and rail. More details may be found here.
Reefer Availability – France The reefer availability situation has not changed this week. For the West Coast, we are now experiencing a ~2 week delay in reefer shipments. For the East Coast, delays are approximately one week. The situation is very dynamic at the moment, so please plan your shipments as far in advance as possible. If you are shipping a Full Container (FCL), there is the option to ship either a dry or insulated container.
Please submit your orders for OND as early as possible!!!
Significant delays affecting LTL reefer trucking. Elenteny preferred carriers, Advantage Transportation and Osborn trucking are experiencing very high demand right now. Coast to coast trucking is taking ~3 weeks for pickups to be coordinated. Local temp controlled trucking via Osborn is currently taking 3-5 business days to collect. We do have alternative solutions that would have to be quoted and will be higher than either of our preferred carriers. Make sure you plan ahead for November and December by ordering early.
New York and Oakland port delays. Due to congestion at the ports from a busier than expected summer months combined with a shortage of drayage carriers, there is a delay in getting containers pulled from the port and delivered to the warehouse. This is adding 1-2 day delays on our normal inbound timelines. We anticipate this to be an issue over the next several weeks as we head into the busiest weeks of the second half of the year. Elenteny Imports will monitor and update weekly on this situation.
California wildfires and smoke continue to threaten vineyards. Wine business has put together a thorough resource on all the issues surrounding the current wildfires and includes a list of affecting wineries and vineyards. Take a look here.
We would welcome any feedback on our weekly updates, you can also reach out to us with additional questions by clicking here.
Regional Updates:
Oceania to USA – continued fallout from labor action at Sydney port terminals has impacted the container flows for Australia and New Zealand shipments. Ocean carriers applied congestion charges this month for export cargo as well. The largest impact has been for flexigrade container equipment in this area.
North Europe to USA – High demand, full vessels and volume capacity on this trade has been tight since July and current blank sailing programs (cancelled sailings) will continue through the last quarter. Reefer availability is also a challenge from France and this may start to become a problem with other European countries. This will put carriers in the advantage to increase rates for peak season. Place your orders as far in advance as possible at this time.
South Europe / Mediterranean to USA – vessel space is full with 7% less capacity on this trade since last year, but blank/cancelled sailings are expected to decline moving forward and bring some improvement.
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.
FDA bi-annual Foreign Supplier Registration Renewal Period. Starting on October 1st, foreign suppliers will be able to log in and renew their FDA registration Every two years, between October 1st and December 31st, the renewal registration process must be completed. This year, a new step has been added to the process, the 9 digit DUNS (Data Universal Numbering System) is required, here is the website to look it up or to register one here. 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.
Distribution Updates
We have seen a promising start to the fourth quarter of the year. We continue to see a steady and encouraging order volume to both on and off-premise accounts in our Direct Markets.
In an attempt to streamline the outside carrier pick up process, FDL has confirmed that all carriers who are picking up freight for Elenteny Imports can check in at 399 Mill Road.
In the meantime, all of our warehouses continue to operate with limited staff, resulting in delayed turnaround times for both physical requests and inbounds. FDL’s delivery schedule has been updated to five days a week and may be found here.
News:
- Are you planning to attend wine events in 2021? Read about Prowein’s plans to lengthen their fair and make changes to the layout and tasting here.
- The WTO tariff turns importers and distributors into punching bags, read the article in Bloomberg here.
- 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.
- Read the most recent highlights from Nielsen, published September 17th.
