France: Calais strike suspended until Tuesday, July 7
In France, parking areas have been created along the A16 for trucks, including at Offenkerque and Marck. On the English side of the Channel, trucks are parked near Folkestone on a part of the M20.
Traffic going to Calais this weekend for a ferry crossing or through the Eurotunnel should plan additional travelling time in order to reach the terminal in time. Via Belgium, there is a chance of delays due to waiting trucks on the A18, and on the A26 to Calais, traffic also has to reckon with delays.
One importer told FreshPlaza the situation was a bit better this morning, "Things are starting to move, but it will take a few days to clear the trucks even if there are no more strikes."
He said haulage companies were asking for more money due to the time the trucks are having to spend at the ports, they have also been refusing to load in the last couple of days because there was no point going to either Dover or Calais.
"Supplies of stonefruit and softfruit are starting to be affected, as demand in the UK increased this week due to the hot weather and of course strawberries are in great demand due to Wimbledon," said the importer.
Another importer said they have 15-16 trucks in transit which should have arrived in the UK by now, "They will get there eventually, but due to the British retail demands it will all have to be repacked on arrival because it was late, normally it is packed at the source and taken directly to the retailers." He does not think quality will be affected, but there were worries that the fuel in the fridge units would run out, but it hasn't gotten to that point yet.
According to one source, there were 52 miles of backed up trucks on the M20 to Dover yesterday.
Anthony Butler from Jem Fruits, an import/exporter in the UK, said they have been managing to cope so far, "But we are finding it very difficult, we have trucks stopped at the ports and issues with immigrants on the trucks too. Supply is ok at the moment but everything is running late, with goods going both to and from the continent."
He is worried about some of the more perishable products such as softfruit, but will just have to see what they are like when they finally arrive, "We are hoping that the situation will be eased up by Monday, but you never know, they might decide to strike again before then."
Graham Eardley, from UK logistics company Eardley International said they had trucks sitting parked for up to 25 hours, "It is absolutely disgusting that we can be held to ransom like this, at one point there were 5000 lorries parked on the M20, that is 5000 people stuck on a British motorway, with no water and toilet facilities and no coverage in the national press! Police were stopping media from getting to the drivers."
Eardley said it has been a nightmare, and no one actually realised the enormity of what was unfolding.
"Things need to be looked at so that this does not happen again, but that would involve French politics. It needs to be made an essential service, it is essential to the UK economy and the ports need to be kept open. If people have a grievance they need to demonstrate in another way or in another place,' said Eardley.