25/03/2021
Dear Cococabana Briketeer ,
‘Tis with a heavy heart I am writing this note given the tremendous support you all gave in 2020 . Whilst Covid raged you kept our lights on we kept your Grills glowing .
I’ve waited as long as I can while hoping for there was to be a breakthrough but I know a lot of people have been asking and waiting so here goes.
Put simply , Cococabana Grill Briketts are not going to be in stock in Europe for the start of the 2021 season.
In the first instance we can directly put the finger on Covid but in India where we produce that storm was quickly weathered and we are all guns firing on production. But a secondary affect has manifested itself , that being shipping logistics coming out of Asia in general but specifically India . All West coast India shipments currently run through Colombo , Sri Lanka as a huge transshipment terminal and then transferred to large container vessels running the China / Europe /E coast USA corridor . When India reopened its ports in October Colombo was closed for 2 weeks due to the staff being tested 50% Covid +, resulting in up to 75,000 full transit containers being backed up in the Indian Ocean Basin . Colombo hasn’t fully recovered from that but what recovery was possible was too late for on time delivery for Xmas so that set off a new problem- finding storage for those full containers of intended Christmas presents , to this day not fully solved . This has now resulted in an acute shortage of containers across Asia triggering an exponential rise in costs. We have 300 tonnes of charcoal briquettes sitting in India awaiting container allocation and whilst this is now starting to happen it isn’t going to be in time for the good weather arriving in Europe . And now on top of all of that a seriously large container vessel from China is now wedged across the Suez Canal , will possibly be that way a couple of weeks and the backlog is growing by 50 ships a day. That was the last straw for me , for us .
We are going to have to take a step back and watch enviously from afar.
Absolutely for sure we will be back and will keep you informed as soon as we know stock will be available. And as and when the Competition circuit reopens and travel is allowed you can expect to see my ugly mug sipping a dram or two with ya’s.
Now for what many of you will see as an unprecedented request. Our mission has always been to displace as much wood charcoal as is possible and especially that which is uncertified and is imported from African and S American countries. By buying Cococabana you were helping achieve that, indeed I believe we are responsible for quite a wave of non wood entries to the market . You can judge for yourself the quality , some are good especially virgin coconut shell and some unfortunately lower the bar on performance . I know some of you tried other non wood brands and came back to us , for that we thank you.
So while we are not able to get our product to you we recommend you use :
- Non wood varieties that frankly you have to pay a little bit more for - meaning if its cheaply priced it most likely is for a reason.* I know what goes into making a good briquette from technique to materials .
- Buy local meaning Buy British / German ! There’s certainly not enough to go around but there are some high quality artisanal charcoal producers that coppice their own managed lands. This is as environmentally friendly as it gets outside of what we do through parallel renewable energy production. It means paying more but I believe you get value and peace of mind.
So in the words of Big Arnie - I’ll be Back but in the meantime Keep em Glowing , Stay safe and healthy and above all have fun !
*if anyone is puzzled by my statement concerning differing qualities of coconut shell charcoal they can PM me and I’ll happily discuss the differences to look out for.
Likewise if anyone has any questions I’m happy to answer them.
Regards Paul
