Your cargo arrives.
No one at discharge represents you.
Your money is now at risk.
Once discharge begins in Dakar, you are no longer the one counting your cargo or assessing its condition.
The buyer’s scale may differ from yours. The receiver’s quality report may differ from yours. If the shore tally comes in short, the buyer calls it short-landed. If a receiver questions the condition, the whole cargo can be rejected.
At that point, what can be independently established matters far more than what anyone remembers or reports. That is because commercial discussions are decided by reliable records, not assumptions.
Without an independent record, you cannot defend against:
- Paper shortages: when measurement differences cost you money.
- Off-spec claims: when quality is questioned and you have no independent counter-evidence.
- Contamination rejections: when one issue costs you the entire cargo
When a claim arrives, you have no proof of what actually happened.
The Record Is Created. You Are Not There.
At the discharge port in Dakar, new records begin to be created.The shore figures are recorded. A survey takes place. The cargo's condition is observed. The timing is logged.
These records matter. If quantity, quality, or delay is questioned later, these are the records that get relied upon.
There is a structural problem with how these records are created.
At discharge, the receiver appoints their own surveyor to conduct the initial draft survey. That surveyor boards the vessel, working alongside the ship's Chief Officer.The surveyor counts the cargo, observes its condition, and records the timing.
But the surveyor works for the receiver, the party that appointed them. Not for you.The Chief Officer is not working for you either. His role is to protect the shipowner's interests, not the exporter's.
Between the two of them, no one at that survey represents you.
The people creating the records at discharge are acting on behalf of the party that appointed them. The receiver's surveyor acts for the receiver. The Chief Officer acts for the shipowner.
No one at discharge is acting on behalf of the exporter.
This reflects the way international grain trade operates. But it also means that, if questions later arise, the exporter's commercial position depends on records that were created without independent representation of their own interests.
Your Bill of Lading May Not Be Enough
When questions arise about quantity, cargo condition or delays, many are resolved through commercial discussions between the parties. Others involve insurers or P&I Clubs. If they still cannot be resolved, they may proceed to arbitration under the applicable contract, such as a GAFTA contract.
Most world grain trade runs under Grain and Feed Trade Association contracts, and the people deciding the dispute do not return to the discharge port to determine what happened. They examine the documentary record created at the time, together with the contract, written submissions, correspondence, certificates, inspection reports, Bills of Lading, and other evidence available.
The receiver may already have discharge records, survey findings or other contemporaneous documentation supporting its position. Their figures are on file. Their observations are documented.Those records were created as the cargo was discharged and inspected.
Your position may be different.
Many exporters assume that a clean Bill of Lading is enough to prove what was shipped. In practice, that is not always the case. Where qualifying wording such as "said to weigh", "weight unknown" or similar clauses appears, the Bill of Lading may have limited evidential value regarding quantity. In those circumstances, independent evidence may become critically important.
The discharge record often becomes one of the most important parts of the commercial discussion. Yet the exporter may have had no independently appointed presence contributing to that record.
If the available documents do not support your position, the commercial consequences can include shortage deductions, rejected quality claims or liability for costs that are difficult to challenge.
The question therefore becomes simple: What independent record exists to support your commercial position?