Sheep May Safely Graze (Published November 2006)

The raw material. Photo: Sarah FoxFor the present, because we are buying cows just now. We have funded sheep before, and tuna and whelk and you name it. The funding of food and perishables requires special knowledge and skills which we have been honing for 10 years. There are considerations of public health, the Food Standards Agency, and EU regulations but this regulatory framework is actually very helpful to the funder if you know your way about.

Dave Johnson (Newvista Ltd) (Nwvst@aol.com) is scaling up his operation so needs trade finance. His product is canned sliced beef in gravy and you can now buy it from your supermarket. We have a quality UK customer who will pay on delivery. That was the easy bit. Getting it there was exciting.

The beef comes from Brazil. We have bought from the Brazil beef factory before for another client so we both had confidence, and they gave us some credit. We needed health and veterinary certificates from the authorities in Brazil before we paid.

The beef was shipped to Rotterdam on its way to the customer-approved processing and canning factory in Romania

"The funding of food and perishables requires special knowledge and skills which we have been honing for 10 years."

There was another veterinary inspection as the beef left the EU on the Hungarian border, and yet another as the cans passed back into the EU.

Photo: Angela MilnerThe Romanian factory had agreed to give us credit and had acknowledged our title of the beef whilst being processed and into their can.

When in cans, cooked, and smothered in gravy the beef was delivered to Dover and imported into the EU when we committed for the import duty.

We were paid upon receipt by the customer and we paid the factory with the profit to Newvista. Bully for them.

But pause for a moment to review again what has happened here. With an experienced client, working with quality trading partners including the freight forwarder, we:

  • Bought beef from Brazil;
  • transported it through the EU to Romania;
  • where it was processed, canned and cooked; and
  • sent to the UK where the customer paid on arrival.

Our job is to try to meet client needs, however difficult.

Watch out sheep. You are next...


Written by David Ross Director

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