The Ottawa-based Fruit & Vegetable Dispute Resolution Corporation (DRC) is reportedly warning members to lookout for possibly fraudulent cross-border transactions after receiving in December around twice as many complaints as usual about exporters being left out in the cold by importers who fail to pay up.
Most complaints have involved US exporters and unlicensed Canadian importers, Fred Webber, vice president of trading assistance, told The Packer, with some companies’ losses exceeding US$100,000.
“I call it ‘The Grinch Syndrome’,” Mr Webber told the publication. “These always seem to pop up around the holidays.”
Cross-border problems can be harder to detect, according to Mr Webber, because it can take much longer — sometime up to 30 days — for suppliers to discover a bad check they received will not clear. During that period, shippers often send additional shipments to the same receiver.
The DRC is urging shippers to deal only with importers who are either DRC members or licensees of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency.
