In remote regions of the Far East, there is a shortage of essential goods, building materials and products due to delays in the ports of Primorye, Kommersant reported.
According to the government of the Sakhalin region, 1100 containers are to be sent to the region. Governor Valery Limarenko explained that supply problems arose due to the pandemic and a sharp increase in the workload of Primorye terminals. Transit containers from China have been added to the usual cargo volumes, which redirects goods through Vladivostok, Nakhodka and Transsib due to increased freight rates, quarantine in China and problems at border crossings.
Residents of Chukotka villages published an appeal to Russian President Vladimir Putin on change.org, in which they reported that almost all the settlements in the region ran out of vegetables, fruits, dairy products and eggs. The Primorsky Transport Prosecutor’s Office began checking compliance with the legislation when organizing the delivery of goods to the regions of the Far North through the port of Vladivostok.
Deliveries to Kamchatka are delayed for up to 60 days. Local authorities said that 1,600 containers and general cargo are awaiting shipment at the ports of Primorye. The Minister of Transport and Road Construction of Kamchatka, Vladimir Kayumov, said that a working group has been created in the Ministry of Transport to control the supply of goods to the Far East. She controls cargo in the port of Vladivostok in order to ship the most necessary first of all. The Ministry of Transport did not respond to the request of the publication.
Rashid Shamoyan, General Director of Shamsa Group (the largest chain of supermarkets and logistic warehouses in the region, supplies about 20% of products), said that there is no shortage of products now, but the cargo takes a very long time. Deputy Prime Minister of the Kamchatka Territory Timofey Smirnov said that the situation with the delivery of general cargo to the region is much more complicated, but not a single major project has yet been disrupted.
The general director of Agent Service DV (a cement supplier to Kamchatka) Yuri Smirnov confirmed the lack of terminal capacities. According to him, the ports of Primorye give priority to transit cargo, and coastal ones are given “in the last place.”
The port of Vladivostok denied Smirnov’s words and said that they give priority to coastal cargo because of their social significance. The head of the commercial department of the port, Elena Kazarina, said that three berths were given to domestic Russian transportation, two – to foreign trade. “All vessels are handled on the move, there are no delays,” she added. According to her, in the previous and this week the port will send 12 motor ships to Kamchatka, Sakhalin, Magadan and Chukotka with 2,300 containers. A source in one of the shipping companies noted that this situation in the ports of Primorye will last throughout 2022, maybe longer.
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