Collaboration counters cargo crime
While ‘Resilience’ was the keyword dominating TAPA EMEA’s Conference, Exhibition & Networking Event in Amsterdam on 7-8 June 2022, not far behind was the sense of industry ‘collaboration’ in the fightback against criminal attacks on supply chains in the Europe, Middle East & Africa (EMEA) region.
The level of risk impacting supply chains is diverse, growing and of historic proportions. Day 1 of the conference served to emphasise the scale of the threats. Covid feels almost in the past, but its impact still lingers and continues to rear its ugly head just when it begins to slip down the list of current risks to supply chain resilience. And, of course, today, an even greater risk to global security is happening in Ukraine in a conflict causing a tragic loss of lives.
Events on the ground in Ukraine are also bringing severe disruption to the food, semiconductor and automotive industries, and others, which have all come to rely on it for everything from wheat and neon gas to cable and wire.
These world events are fuelling a ‘cost of live’ crisis which will act as a breeding ground for crime as Organised Crime Groups and small-time offenders leverage the growing ‘black market’ opportunities which emerge when money is tight in consumer households. Already, TAPA EMEA is seeing a record number of diesel thefts as fuel prices soar.
And, to the list of challenges needing managing can be added port backlogs, cargo capacity and driver shortages, escalating operating costs, civil unrest and activism, illegal migration, continuing disruption from Brexit, and the growing threat of cybercrime.
From a supply chain impact perspective, addressing this disruption, alongside the other traditional risks to cargo security and supply chain resilience, is testing all stakeholders like never before.
“I don’t believe any of us can recall a time when there were so many risks to global supply chains,” says TAPA EMEA’s President & CEO, Thorsten Neumann.
But the world of business doesn’t stop. It overcomes obstacles, manages complex challenges and pivots to keep supply chains moving, often in the most difficult of circumstances.
If one statement resonated with delegates joining TAPA EMEA in Amsterdam, it came from Gino Laios of Philip Morris International, as he highlighted the collaboration between members of the Tobacco Working Group to reduce attacks on their supply chains: “When it comes to security, there is no competition.”
What there is, is collaboration.
Time and again, delegates heard about the power and value of working together, sharing intelligence and best practice, forging partnerships, and learning from one another.
Resilience is at risk, like never before. Industry will find a way to protect it.
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