Global shipping company Maersk has announced it needs to return cargo bound for Russia to the original senders as a result of the Russian ban on imports from several Western nations.
Mearsk has not confirmed the number or volume of goods turned away, but has said that the costs of returning the produce would not be covered by the shipping company, according to Reuters.
“Maersk Line customers were completely unprepared for these sanctions and since they had effect immediately, a significant amount of cargo at sea needs to be returned,” Maersk Line said in a statement.
A Maersk spokesperson told Reuters the ban on Russian imports from Western countries would most likely not have a negative impact on the shipping company, as business could increase on alternate lines, such as imports from Brazil.
The South American nation is set to benefit from the ban, with exports of meat, corn and soybean to Russian buyers expected to increase. Brazil’s secretary of agricultural policy, Seneri Paludo, told Reuters in early August that he saw Russia as having great potential as a consumer of agricultural commodities, and that the Russian embargo presented a window of opporuntity for Brazil to ramp up its exports.
The Russian banapplies to imports of meat, dairy, fruit and vegetable products from the EU, the US, Canada, Australia and Norway, effective for one year as of 7 August.
