It's hard to give shape or voice to what feels like an international conspiracy.
We've always shipped liquids internationally through our Thai herbal business, Pure Thai Natural Co Ltd. Massage oils, facial products, magnesium spray and insect repellent. We use mostly break-proof and light aluminum bottles and flasks, or very strong industrial grade glass. We have always additionally shrink wrapped our liquids (just in case) and packed them with extreme care. In 15 years of shipping to 27 countries, we've had only THREE packages which involved leakage or breakage.
But slowly, slowly, over the last 4ish years, the noose started tightening. First the Thai post office said "No Liquids" unless you were a registered Thai company. We had no issue with that as a tax-paying, legal, Thai public company, and continued to ship through one post office in particular who knew that I had talked to their boss and knew that they couldn't refuse me. They still refused almost everyone else.
Sniffing a threat I wanted to be ahead of, I wanted to know why the rule changes, and so I had a face to face meeting with the Manager of Thailand Post Region 5, who confessed that the Dangerous Goods Act had not changed at all, but it was due to customs issues, new airport scanning technology and the fact that when countries returned goods posted mostly by tourists without valid return addresses, the cost was being born by Thailand Post. They're not actually allowed to even say "No Liquids" as the postal legislation and Dangerous Gods Act have not been changed. And so the postal and shipping rules have just become tighter and tighter, changing frequently, without announcement.
Our company ultimately decided to shift our shipping to DHL for faster deliverability, greater customer confidence and much better track & trace, and because liquids were not an issue for DHL. And for the last 2 years have shipped internationally with DHL and had no issue shipping liquids internationally. The 5-10% more in terms of cost (we've had corporate rates) has been well worth it.
And then Covid came. And then suddenly, in January 2021, a MASSIVE change.
I had a customer in Australia buy a bottle of insect repellent online. 195 THB. In a shatterproof, aluminum bottle. Shrink wrapped. I sent it off to DHL and they actually called me to confirm if I wanted to ship despite the price hike. I was bewildered, since I had received no advice from them of price or condition arrangements. Being on contract pricing, this was a curveball. Much agitation and discussion and a few meetings with DHL later, and I was forced to refund the customer for the purchase.
Why?
The cost of sending that one $6 bottle of insect repellent had shot up to 2020 thb - $65!!! 😫
Knowing that no amount of arguing with minions in large bureaucracies is ultimately effective, I again went to see the Management Team of Thailand Post Region 5. And had a lovely session with no less than 4 people from Thailand Post Marketing.
They again confirmed that it was still technically possible to send liquids, as the law required them to. But that customers could now only send liquids via 2 services: Sea and Land freight, or via their new service, Courier Post. I was all excited until 2 things were clarified: (1) there IS no regular sea freight currently between many/most countries, including Australia, and (2) the cost of Courier Post. My $6 bottle of Insect Repellent could be happily sent to Australia using Courier Post for "only" 1600 THB - a mere $51. Because we all know what a great deal a $57 bottle of organic insect repellent is.
It remains unclear what will happen after Covid.
For the foreseeable future, we're NOT able to ship liquids anywhere except within Thailand. Clearly that's impacting our bottom line drastically in this day & age where everything has shifted online.
We are adapting by developing balm versions of our most popular products and suspect this will be our biggest growth area in the next 12-24 months. We have just sent product samples to China last week. We are also changing our target countries for marketing. We're basically having to ignore countries we struggle to ship to. And driving our focus hard towards Malaysia, Vietnam and China. Which can all be easily freighted to by road from Northern Thailand.
Despite endless online searching, it remains somewhat elusive why airlines have clamped down so hard on shipping liquids. One can only assume weight and cost-ratio-fuel issues. BIG commercial consignments still ship , albeit infrequently, by commercial containers where there are still sea freight services. I asked our shippers when sea freight to Australia and New Zealand would resume and received only the standard shrug and "After Covid" by way of response.
The way we do business and the cost of moving products around the globe have changed dramatically the last 3 months. While it's easy to retort that one should "Shop Local", what should I tell my customer in Kuwait who has almost nothing to buy locally, or the Spa Owner in Japan who has invested hugely but now can no longer source affordable or original products to deliver their service. The new massive Chinese rail project from Xi'an in China to Istanbul in Turkey is making more sense by the day.
https://www.railfreight.com/corridors/2020/12/08/istanbul-xian-new-freight-train-service/
When Covid started, first it was The Great Pause. Then The Great Reset. I'm pondering hard what a more appropriate term might be. The Great Puppet Show? The Great Control Experiment? We currently have two other huge rail projects in process - China down through Laos to Bangkok, and from Daweii Deep Sea Port in Burma across SE Asia. It's such big news and such radical change that there's a special symposium in Bangkok in September 2021, The Future of Rail in Asia. This WILL change the way the world does business, and with whom.
Wondering. And working unbelievably hard to adapt.
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