Could one candy bar cause a heap of trouble? Yes That was the case with KitKats but not for the obvious reasons.It has to do with shipping the more unusual flavors from Japan to the US. The problem is a good portion went missing. it was the start of a strange mystery.
Regular contributor Amelia NIerenberg wrote about this bizarre tale in today's New York Times Wednesday Food section. Japanese versions of the popular candy bar are so much in demand here in the States. American candy lovers go wild for such unique flavors like melon, matcha latte and daifuku mochi. Exporter Danny Taing knows this and brought in 55,000 bars. He expected to make $250,000 dollars in profit. There was only one problem. He never received the shipment at his Carlstadt,New Jersey warehouse. THis is where it gets crazy. Mr Taing hired Shane Black, a freight broker in Sarasota Florida. His company coordinates and marshalls the thousands of trucks that ship goods across the country. For this Kitkat job Bokksu would pay him, $13,000, It seemed an easy enough and straight forward deal. He then posted a job on akind of Craiglst for truckers . A company HCH Trucking responded and Mr. Black corrosponded with someone called Tristan. It seemed routine.
Yet it wasn't. It was the start of shell email accounts, phantom truckers and supply chain fraud. It also produced one seriosuly bewildered cargo freight broker. Where did the Kitkats go? When they failed to reach New Jersey after a couple of days.Mr Black had nightmares of them being somewhere in the US , chocolate oozing out of the trucks. He called Tristan who replied that one of the trucks broke down in Washungton, Pennsylvania ,a small towm just outside of Pittsburgh. That alone set up red flags. He then called the company's headquarters in Jersey City. There was chaos there.It turned out that the Kitskats never left California and luckily half were still in deep freeze. The other half should be on the way to the Garden State, However thatload disappeared and wound up at Island Cold Empire Storage. Mr Black tried to get the local Californian authrotities involved but no go. In the meantime the Kitkats spoiled. Mr. Taing could never resell them to Kitkat enthusiasts. He was afraid tha tpeople would get sick if they ate them. Bizarrely Mr Taing bought the company that shipped them over and cause the problem. Japanese Crate.
If anything the Kitkat scandal opened up an entire cna of worms. Authorities should now be alerted to what's happening lost shipments. it affects everyone, from the manufacturer to the customer.
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