UK importers could witness delays in products departing from Bangladesh after last week’s violent exchanges between student protesters and police.

Both air and ocean freight have been heavily disrupted in the past week, following the government’s nationwide blackout of internet and curfew to help subside the major unrest.

The clashes continued for ten days prior to the blackout, which tragically resulted in over 200 deaths according to local news agencies, or 147 according to the Home Minister.

As a result of the internet drop out, the flow of air and ocean traffic was significantly impacted for a few days and backlogs have built. Several containerships were queued outside the port of Chittagong as operations and customs procedures stopped for a few days and factories were forced to close.

Many major garment manufacturers have been trying to switch urgent orders from ocean freight to air freight to avoid contractual discounts that apply to delayed orders. However, the loss of internet has led to backlogs at Dhaka airport, which is now understood to be overflowing with freight.

Exports from Bangladesh could continue to be slow in the next 3/4 weeks as backlogs at ports and airports are cleared.