WFP Logistics - Korea, Democratic People's Republic of

Logistics in Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) is unique in the context of regular WFP Logistics operations and with the new emergency operation (EMOP) tonnage of 630,000 MT for 15 months (1st September 2008 to 30th November 2009) for 6.237 million beneficiaries. This is the largest amount of WFP beneficiaries in one operation. The cargo will be handled by WFP Logistics and Government of DPRK through the National Coordination Committee (NCC). DPRK is currently experiencing difficulty in receiving its planned/projected contributions of 42,000 MT per month.

WFP HQ is responsible for the international transportation of commodities to the DPRK. Commodities arriving in bulk and break-bulk are discharged in one or more of the three ports: Nampo, Hungnam and Chongjin. WFP has two appointed bagging companies: Nectar and Portserv. Commodities arriving in containers are discharged in China (Dalian) and transhipped to the DPRK by feeder vessel (containers) to Nampo or by rail (bagged) to Dandong/Sinuiju (west coast) and Tumen / Namyang (north/east coasts).

Discharge operations are carried out by the government, who then take possession and assume responsibility for arranging landside transport, storage and handling from main entry points to beneficiaries in accordance with WFP's distribution plans.

Building on the success of previous operations, WFP continues to support local food production (LFP) of fortified foods. WFP Logistics provides overall management of the program, as well as the raw materials and funding for equipment, packaging materials and spare parts. The government operates the factories, employs workers, provides electrical power, building maintenance and in some cases transport of the finished product to the beneficiary institutions. The fortified foods produced locally are: Corn Soya Milk (CSM), Cereal Milk Blend (CMB), Rice Milk Blend (RMB) and biscuits. Under this EMOP, WFP plans to expand the activity to produce around 66,000 tons of fortified food for around 4 million children and pregnant and lactating women. The total number of factories has been increased from 8 to 13 (3 CSM, 3 CMB, 1 RMB and 6 biscuit factories). An additional 5 factories are being planned for areas with high malnutrition levels. For the first time, WFP will also explore the possibility of supporting the rehabilitation of local factories like bean paste factories and local mills with manual fortification interventions.

Logistics manages the CO pipeline, both upstream and downstream. Before the arrival of the commodities, Logistics prepares the Distribution Plans to 131 Provincial and Country Warehouses (DP1s). Once the commodities have been dispatched from the ports/points of entry, Logistics confirms the receipts at DP1 warehouses and then issues Distribution Plans to the DP2s [44,000 PDCs]. Procurement is organized through regular monitoring of resources, preparing funding proposals, Import Parity analysis, Assignment Plan, and discussing with OMXP and OMLP on RTA [Request Time of Arrival] management.

To date, US$ 1.4 million worth of non-food items (NFIs), including 10,000 pallets, 12 mobile storage facilities, one 8-ton truck, 5 forklifts, have been procured to enhance port/warehouse handling and storage. NFI procurement also consists of spare-parts and packaging materials for local food production factories.

In terms of logistical challenges, one of them is the bottlenecks from China. These are mainly due to the non-availability of covered rail wagons in DPRK and thus the slow turn-around time of Chinese rail wagons returning from DPRK. China has since June 2008 denied Chinese covered rail wagons to cross the border into DPRK, which has increased the bottleneck at the points of entry: Dandong/Sinuiju and Namyang/Tumin.

Poor road infrastructure of the country delays the delivery of food to distribution centers. Thus, DPRK Logistics has attempted to use different entry corridors to solve the problem by rotating vessels to three ports, and using two main inland transshipment points.

Storage facilities are in poor condition in many of the 131 counties as well as at provincial and port levels. DPRK Logistics is in the process of buying pallets, tarpaulins, and mobile storage facilities in support of the current storage facility maintenance. The plan is to distribute the pallets to the port and provincial, county and local food processing factories; in addition the mobile storage facilities and tarpaulins will be distributed to three ports and provincial warehouses.

Another constraint is the turn-around time of containers between Dalian and Nampo ports which often results in detention charges. Primary causes include the short free-time granted by shipping lines, time to complete customs formalities in China, time to de-stuff containers in Nampo and the time required to return the empty containers to the CY in Dalian. In response, DPRK Logistics developed a container tracking system to monitor the delay at transshipment and destination ports.