AVARUA (Cook Islands News/PINA) — Shipping problems have created difficulties for liquor-related businesses in the Cook Islands, says The Bond Store general manager Nick Henry.
He says a series of delays to the schedule of the Pacific Forum Line container ship Forum Rarotonga has left his business without many of the wines it regularly supplies to restaurants; and with rapidly dwindling supplies of a popular brand of beer. “It’s making things very difficult for us,” he said. “To make matters even worse, we often don’t hear that there are going to be delays until it’s too late to do anything about them.
“When you’re totally reliant on imported products these delays can cause all sorts of difficulties.”
Hawaii Pacific Maritime manager Apii Ben said the Forum Rarotonga’s schedule had been affected by a series of mechanical problems that had caused delays.
Voyage 17 had been delayed in Rarotonga after a wire rope snapped on the ship’s crane, she said.
“That had to be fixed locally, which took a few days. When the ship got back to Auckland it was loaded and ready to leave on Anzac Day but the engineers found a problem with the engine, which caused another three-day delay,” Ben said. “We’ve been getting a lot of frustrated customers, but there’s nothing I can do about it,” she said, adding that she couldn’t spot any beer on the cargo manifest for the latest voyage.
