According to the provincial secretary of COAG-Almeria, Andrés Góngora, "there are issues with traffic jams at the moment, especially to leave France, as several carriers have told us that they have been withheld for up to six hours because of the controls carried out by the authorities."
On the border with France, safety measures cannot be stricter and all vehicles planning to enter or leave the French territory are being inspected and requested to provide documentation. For this reason, Góngora believes that "in the event that an order does not arrive in fair time, customers shouldn't complain, since we are talking about a force majeure issue."
The most common problem for transport companies is the loss of time in crossing the border, although not all of them are suffering this setback. Francisco Ramírez, head of Export and Import for France at Almeria Cargo, stated that "until Now, we have not had any problems with our trucks. We are noticing some delays in leaving the French territory, but even so, our orders are arriving in time. In fact, this same morning a truck was scheduled to arrive at its destination, and despite losing a few minutes last night because of controls, it has finally got there in time."
Another issue revealed by companies like Frío Guerrero is that "some orders, which were going to Paris or Lille, have been diverted and shipped to other markets; however, this hasn't caused us any serious problems," assures Christian Guerrero, manager of the firm.
In any case, both transport companies and agricultural organizations agree that, as the hours go by, things are going back to normal and there are fewer delays to enter or leave the French territory.
Source: fhalmeria.com
