The situation is deteriorating for our region in terms of maritime servives. The reduction in frequencies of the french shipowner now obliges it to unload its “containers” destined for Mayotte at Jebel Ali (Dubaï).
CMA-CGM, the world’s leading container shipping company, has decided to reduce the number of monthly rotations to Mayotte, which will have a strong impact on local supplies. These containers could remain on the docks in Dubai before being reloaded for Mayotte. The main cause of the disruption of global shipping would be the beginning of the Covid pandemic. A random supply is synonymous with increases price and social tensions in an already particularly tense context as observed by our colleague Denis Herrmann in LNM: “CMA-CGM, Mayotte representing only an infinitesimal part of its turnover, prefers to refocus its activities on more profitable destinations. Indeed, Mayotte is, along with French Guiana, the French department where the cost of living is the highest (while its population is at the same time the most deprived in France). Some PPN (basic necessities) such as cooking oil, have seen their price soar by 25% since the beginning of the epidemic. As for us, the paper edition of the Journal des Archipels was on its way to the port of Longoni in Mayotte when our forwarding agent warned of its detour for a delivery at a still unknown date.
To be continued in our columns!
