Dear Friends & Colleagues,
As we move through our 5th week of suspended operations, we would like to share with you about the status of our breeder network as well as CRES’ preparations to resume operations in the coming weeks. While faced with uncertainty everywhere we intend to support our clients wherever and however possible!
1) COVID19 in Costa Rica, our staff & our breeders
So far Costa Rica has had 136 confirmed cases per 1 million people in our country after almost 60 days since the 1st case, a figure that speaks well of the actions taken at our national level! To date no member of our staff nor any breeder associated with CRES has been affected by the virus! We remain in fluid communication with everyone. We are confident that all have adhered to the proper protocols to avoid the contagion.
Therefore, we’re pleased – and relieved -- to inform you that CRES’ community of butterfly farmers is ready to resume rearing butterflies as soon as we know of our clients’ new startup dates. Hopefully for many this will occur in the coming weeks!
2) Couriers & government and import border logistics
Confident that we can supply pupae to the market as it resumes, we are monitoring the readiness of both our logistics chain of airlines and cargo agents as well as government agencies for the issuance of export permits.
Regarding the airlines, it’s important to note that Costa Rica has closed its borders until May 15th. While some airlines have reported some initial flights before that date, we believe most airlines will evaluate when to fully resume operations from Costa Rica based on that date. We will have better clarity on when we will be able to fully resume our consolidated shipments to both USA and Europe around mid-May.
For those destinations that we serve with UPS, we can resume at any time as UPS manages its own flights and continue operating normally.
To facilitate the timely issuance of export permits, we will need a 2 week notice for each order required. Please keep this in mind as you contemplate your resumption date, since we might be unable to alter our export permits with last-minute petitions.
Regarding international borders inspection agencies (USDA, US Fish & Wildlife, European Veterinary Inspections, Canada Food Inspection Agency - CFIA, etc.), we understand they are operating normally. We do not expect unusual delays at the ports as the shipments are inspected and cleared.
Extra: While we don’t know, it’s possible that some airlines will increase their charges upon resuming operations, to compensate for the low demand of travelers during their first weeks of operation. Please be prepared for this possibility.
3) CRES’ Strategy to resume operations
It’s evident that resuming CRES’ operations will require close coordination with breeders, government officials, airlines, courier companies, freight agencies and you.
To facilitate your order planning we want to provide you with our “2020 Post COVID19 Season Schedule”.
Until something resembling normalcy returns and based on the information we have as of today, we intend to serve each of our main markets (USA and Europe) with one consolidated shipment each on alternate weeks. One week CRES will supply European exhibitions and the following USA…. We thus intend to provide service to these markets every two weeks.
Please note that we will reinitiate exports as two preconditions are met:
- When the airlines resume service and confirm that “Live Animals cargo” can be received (presumably between mid and the end of May).
- When there are sufficient orders to confront the shipping costs.
Should either of these criteria not be met, we’ll have to postpone the shipment by two weeks and inform you accordingly. For now we expect to work in this way starting sometime in May until – tentatively – the end of July. But clearly this could change depending on countless factors.
NOTE: Arrival dates are estimated. They could be affected by +1 day from the dates indicated above, or in some cases, the orders might arrive earlier.
This new world will require that we work closely in achieving efficiencies as an industry while accommodating to local circumstances. At CRES we will endeavor to seek economies of scale wherever possible as we struggle to get our businesses together out of Intensive Care.
We sincerely appreciate your cooperation and pledge to support your facility in this new reality. Please know that CRES is here and can be counted on for your exhibit’s needs.
We welcome your feedback and would love to hear of your experiences and insights as we seek clarity on what the next moves will require.