Fresh fish and reduced lead times thanks to new customs solutions

20 三月 2023

The customer

Seaborn AS supplies Europe with fresh fish. The company is a major distributor of Norwegian salmon and Norwegian fjord trout, as well as Icelandic salmon. The company was founded and is owned by several Norwegian fish farms along the Norwegian coast. The producers have generations of experience and tradition in fish farming. The Norwegian fish industry accounts for the country's third-largest export volume after oil and gas.

The strategic focus has always been on meeting customer needs by developing new business solutions. One of the new ideas is to deliver a fresher product to the consumer. To achieve this, Seaborn needed a new customs solution for Icelandic salmon being exported to the EU at the Danish border without a buyer in the EU. This new customs solution needed to include both customs clearance and VAT.

The challenge

If one element in the supply chain changes, it can have consequences for customs clearance. This was exactly the case for Seaborn. The normal procedure for exporting fish to the EU is to sell it in advance before it crosses the EU border. For the new approach, Seaborn needed a new customs solution: the unsold but already loaded fish had to remain in transit because Seaborn had no warehouse in Iceland to store it. The fish was meant to be sold during transit to save costs on storage and thus provide a fresher product to the end customer. Therefore, the lead time needed to be used to find a buyer.

Illustration of a woman holding fish outside Maersk warehouse

The solution

Maersk and Seaborn AS have a long history of working together on customs clearance for their export flows to the EU. Through VAT registration in Sweden, Maersk handles Seaborn's EU customs clearance.

For the implementation of Seaborn's new business idea, the solution was to use Maersk's VAT services in Denmark. Here, not having a specific buyer in the EU at the time of export was not an obstacle. This made it possible to sell the salmon during transport and have it invoiced by Maersk under Seaborn's Danish VAT number, allowing the lead time to be used for the delivery of the produce. This workaround allowed Seaborn to increase sales and save on storage costs, resulting in both sales and profit growth.

Results

The new process has resulted in fast and predictable deliveries. This benefit enabled Seaborn to increase sales and save on warehousing costs. The solution is beneficial to all parties. In addition, thanks to the new solution, Seaborn has improved its compliance by working with a full customs management partner that takes care of everything from customs clearance to VAT Intrastat reporting.

Do you have questions about possible customs solutions? Please contact our Maersk Customs experts here.

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