Importing from Africa

It is easy to forget what a huge continent Africa is. The total area is 30.4 million square kilometres (11.7 million square miles). The total area of the United States (including Alaska and Hawaii) is 9.6 million square kilometres (3.8 million square miles). Africa is more than three times the size of the US. Because of its size, lack of comprehensive infrastructure & a myriad of other issues, importing goods from Africa can be problematic. Here are just a few of the issues!

Location Issues

Because some of our suppliers are based in remote locations (Tribal Textiles is in the South Luangwa Valley, Katundu is based on an island in the middle of lake Malawi) getting products to Europe is a bit of a challenge. During the rainy season in South Luangwa, particularly January and February, workshops close and roads become impassable so if we run out of products during this period there is no chance of replenishing stock.

The only transport available for getting Katundu products to the mainland from Likoma Island is The MV Ilala ferry which was built in Scotland in 1949 and named after the Ilala region of Zambia, where David Livingstone was first buried. Once built, the ship was dismantled and transported to pieces in Malawi, first by ship to Beira, Mozambique, then by rail and road to Chipoka, in the south of Lake Malawi. It is the only passenger ship connecting the whole Lake Malawi, transporting goods and people from the south to the north of the country, including the islands. Since 1951 it has continued to operate uninterruptedly, except for maintenance periods.

Bureaucratic Issues

Taric codes is a European Union standardised customs identifier containing ten digits and containing information relating to duty suspension, tariff quotas and other details. This is a bit of a minefield in that you are given lists and lists of products, have to identify the ones you are importing and match each product to a particular code. Then there may be an issue with Irish customs who can query your designation of a particular code - and so we have another hold up for receiving our goods. Really.....you don’t want to know!

Custom duties, VAT and other monies then have to be paid before goods can be released by customs and sent on their way - in our case, finally reaching us up a little lane in the West of Ireland.

Cost

Because of the great distances involved, the cost of transporting goods from Africa to Europe can be pretty high. Large bulky baskets, heavy glass chandeliers etc can add even extra costs to an already high tariff – but we just couldn’t resist trying to bring such wonderful products to Ireland.

Returns

Almost impossible! The bureaucratic nightmare in reverse doesn’t bear thinking about.