MADINA: A crisis broke out in Jeddah Islamic Port Saturday after imported goods, particularly food and medicine, could not be cleared because Saudi Food and Drug Authority employees could not reach the site due to road closures, officials said. The date and time for resumption of work has not been announced and importers have delayed visiting the port to complete transactions for removing their goods, according to officials. Sulaiman Al-Twaijiri, Director General of Customs at Jeddah Islamic Port, told Okaz/Saudi Gazette that a huge, unprecedented amount of rainwater flowed into the complex and rain damaged some goods there. The crisis grew worse when the Southern Group and its building were surrounded by water and all roads leading to the building were closed, which stalled transactions for more than 30 percent of incoming and outgoing goods, officials said. Work was concentrated in the Northern Group, which witnessed overcrowding of people who sought to complete their transactions. Government authorities at the Jeddah Islamic Port declared a state of maximum mobilization to remove all obstacles to removing goods and prevent their piling up, officials said. The Customs Department has exempted all goods from charges due to weather- and flooding-related delays in taking them from the site, officials said. The decision covers goods that arrived in the past few days and could not be removed since Wednesday. Customs officials called on importers and traders who have completed payment procedures without being able to remove their goods to visit the Customs Administration at the port as soon as possible to do what is necessary to exempt their goods from fines. Those actions would facilitate processing goods whose procedures have stalled, in order to protect them from becoming spoiled or damaged. While shipping agents and handling companies rushed to prepare reports on stalled or damaged goods in preparation for dealing with them according to the regulations, the Frontier Guard received a request to facilitate the passage of transport trucks, provided this does not violate their regulations. Port terminals are run by companies that have contracts with the Ports Authority that make it incumbent upon them to compensate importers for damage to their goods, provided the operator has not taken measures to guarantee their protection, according to Al-Twaijiri. Administrators have forced operators to compensate many importers whose consignments were damaged, he said. He said Customs regulations exempt importers and traders from fines for delays in removing the goods due to reasons beyond their control, which led officials to not levy fines because it was impossible to unload and inspect the goods. The computer system, gates and X-ray inspection system were stopped temporarily as a precautionary measure when the rainwater level rose, which caused further delays, Al-Twaijiri said. They began operating again on Saturday morning without any problems, he added. Ibrahim Al-Aqeeli, Chairman of the Customs Clearance Officials Committee of the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry said the decision to not levy the fines would expedite removal of the goods.
