Update - May 2011

With so much going on the blog seems to take a back seat.
Since the last post we have continued to keep plodding along. We have not put coldwater feeds onto the site before but this year we found some great product & decided to offer it. New feeds always take a while to get off the ground so this is work in progress.
Postage is a real headache to get right on the site. As an average it works out about right but some orders are sent out over postal cost & some under. Generally we put in extra feed weight where a customer pays over the odds.
The new increase in postage costs is quite large but we decided not to put costs up this time round.
It seems everything is going up with banks & the government charging 3 times for the same thing. This mentality has filtered down to Parcelforce in the UK where imports are having extra charges put on for 'handling fees' which impact on the cost of imports outside the EC.
We have been lucky in getting small import duty amounts but now are seeing amounts of 10% leveed against imports from the USA. Of course this has to impact on the cost of goods we bring in & some items we are having to seriously look at. We hate having to increase prices but in some cases we are close to making no profit which is not good in any business.
Freight costs, taxes, duties & hidden costs are stacking up to make imports outside the EC very expensive.
Our customers expect top quality feeds from us. Businesses these days are up against more & more charges in importing & it really is a fight to keep prices down.
Dainichi are still not able to send to the EC. This has been going on for over a year now. In the same vein the US are now saying Artemia is not fit to feed to fish be it for food or ornamental. This is something brewing in the US & lawyers are probably going to come out of it smelling of roses. How aquaculture businesses are going to survive in all this remains to be seen.
Is the world going crazy with beaurocracy & red tape. When will common sense prevail?