If you have received a GAFTA notice of arbitration, the time for appointing an arbitrator is already running: nine days from the date the email was sent, weekends included, and the claimant does not need to serve a detailed claim first. Below is what to check in the first week so that you neither lose your own arbitrator nor forfeit objections that cannot be raised later. GAFTA notice of arbitration: what exactly have you received?…
In July 2026, after a series of strikes on merchant ships off Odesa, shipowners all but stopped calling at Ukrainian Black Sea ports — and traders holding open contracts faced the question again: can you invoke force majeure when a full-scale war is in its fifth year and shelling is, strictly speaking, no longer news? A recent High Court decision, ADM Industries Centers Ltd v Inerco Trade SA [2026] EWHC 1873 (Comm), arising out of…
Rice that has comfortably passed quality control in the country of origin can turn out to be “unfit” in the country of destination — simply because a stricter aflatoxin limit applies there. Who bears that risk: the seller or the buyer? A dispute that went to GAFTA arbitration showed that the answer turns not on common sense, nor on what the goods were actually bought for, but on what the contract actually says. What aflatoxin…
This article is about arbitration under the Gafta 126 Rules. I have written about the standard Rules 125 here. Gafta created Expedited Arbitration Procedure Rules 126 for rapid dispute resolution. The Association designed these rules for simple disputes of small value. The main advantages of the Rules are speed and cost. Statistically, arbitration under Rules 126 takes 4 months, and arbitration under Rules 125 takes 8 months. The average cost under the expedited rules is…
Gafta arbitration (Grain and Feed Trade Association) is a dispute resolution process conducted under the Gafta rules, primarily based on the association’s standard forms. Gafta, the International Grain and Feed Trade Association, was established to standardise and simplify the global trade of grain and feed. The association develops standard form contracts that include mandatory provisions for resolving disputes through Gafta arbitration. These contracts are widely used in international trade, and any disputes arising from them…
