Ask an expert: Grain Cargo claims

Expert: Chris Ellyatt, Consultant, Food & Agricultural Commodities, CWA

The Club continues to see a number of grain contamination claims. Often it becomes difficult to ascertain if these contamination claims are due to the inherent contaminants at the load port, or if these are a result of improper hold cleaning by the ship staff.

This latest 'Ask an Expert' discussion aims to dissect the issues surrounding the different types of contamination, prevention options available, the importance of sampling & analysis, and the various solutions available. Chris is a consultant in the food and agricultural department at CWA, providing expert advice on issues across sampling, loading, discharging and storage of various food and agricultural cargoes.

Chris highlights the importance of proper recordkeeping during the loading of the cargo to ensure that any untoward contaminants are noted and records maintained. Further extra care needs to be taken to ensure the holds are prepared when loading food grade cargo. There have been instances where entire cargo is rejected due to issues such as small contamination by genetically modified cargoes in countries where they are banned.

However, Chris assures that even though there might be contamination of the cargo, there are still options available with the owners and receivers to rectify the cargo and not make it a complete loss.

The UK P&I website has many useful sources of material for the guidance of ship's crew in preparation and carriage of grain cargoes. This includes the popular “Carefully to Carry” series

For more information please get in touch with our Loss Prevention team who will be pleased to assist you.