BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – CONSUMERS are once again expressing frustration over the unreliable supply of evaporated milk to the island, particularly Carnation Evaporated milk, which has taken another hiatus from supermarket shelves.
SKNVibes learned that the commodity had been in scarce supply for over 10 days. Large and small businesses alike have made complaints to suppliers about the scarcity and those businesses fortunate to have but a few boxes are rationing them by the tin.
In an exclusive interview with SKNVibes, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Consumer Affairs Her Excellency Ambassador Rosalyn Hazelle informed that the problem had been slowly developing since last year when most of the nation’s orders had been delayed for several months.
“In 2007, the government placed an order for 6 containers of Carnation evaporated milk with an anticipated date of arrival in January 2008 which did not arrive until February of the same year. We then ordered for 6 containers to arrive in April, 6 in May and 5 in June. The April shipment arrived on May 28, the May shipment came in two loads on August 27 and September 11 while the containers anticipated for June arrived on October 15.
“Since then, the Ministry placed an order for 6 containers in July and in August. Subsequently, the agent for the supplier recommended that we make an order for the rest of the year given the problem that had been developing. We made the order but the 36 containers have yet to arrive here.”
Ambassador Hazelle indicated that another order for Carnation Evaporated milk was placed in December to avoid delay in the new year. She was however informed that the shipments are to leave Peru on February 13.
“Historically,” she added, “the delivery time between the date of order and the arrival in St. Kitts was 4-6 weeks. So that shipment which will leave in February is already a late shipment. We have received no explanation from them [the suppliers] as to the delay to leave Peru and that is the issue.”
Hazelle stressed, “We are hopeful in the sense that if the information from RAM’s holds true, we would be able to have a supply of Carnation Evaporated milk. At the same time, we also placed an order for Cardinal Cream which should also arrive in mid-February.
“If anyone thinks that the difficulty we are faced with is by any means an action by this Department, I want to make clear that we have placed our orders in a timely manner. However, we apologize for any inconvenience caused, but it must be understood that the situation is not immediately within our control.”
The nation had faced a similar problem in early August of last year when the quantity of Carnation Evaporated milk had ran low and caused the introduction of the Cardinal Cream. SKNVibes learned that there is still a maintained quantity of Carnation Evaporated milk on sister island, Nevis.
