Growing overheads in operations, mainly from some of the apparently avoidable costs incurred while importing goods into Qatar by sea and road, have adversely affected the local suppliers of consumables, mainly foodstuff, it is learnt.
Desperate representatives of the importing firms are now seeking the immediate intervention of the ministries concerned and senior officials of the Qatar Chamber to tide over the issues arising from the increasing costs in their operations, which some of them feel would affect the foodstuff supply industry in Qatar.
“Besides the inordinate delay in transporting goods from the port, the importers are now also forced to pay at least three types of demurrage, which are all amounting to their growing overheads,” a source said.
Importers complain that line, port and container demurrage costs are hitting their operations heavily.
Some of the aggrieved suppliers/wholesalers said it would be extremely difficult for their companies to carry on their operations at this rate for long.
There has been a nearly 150-200% rise in the trailer costs in a year as their operators feel they would lose two to three days while waiting for clearing their parties’ goods at the port.
It is understood that trailers used to ferry goods from the port to the warehouses in the Industrial Area for QR400-450 per trip until a year ago. Now it costs no less than QR1,050-1,100 per trip, sources said. The rate hike is meant to compensate for their losses while waiting to load the containers.
Similar delays are also happening while importing foodstuff by road. A senior businessman was of the view that the constantly increasing rent of foodstuff warehouses is becoming increasingly uneconomical for their company to continue the local operations.
“The monthly rents my company pays for retaining warehouses in Doha’s Industrial Area is at least 10 times more than what we pay for larger facilities in Sharjah. As a result, it would be more economical for us to ferry goods from Sharjah than hiring a warehouse in Doha,” he said.
There has been a substantial rise in the road transportation costs in the last two years. Earlier, a trailer from the UAE used to take a trip to Qatar for QR2,200. Now the fare comes close to QR5,000. This, he explains, is because of a delay in border clearance.
It is also understood that clearing agents who used to take considerable interest in receiving new customers earlier are not very enthusiastic these days as they are unable to give any assurance to importers on the time taken for completing procedures to clear goods.