Cacao business devastated after US customs ruins $220k shipment
Tuesday, 7 April 2026
A Napier-based small business has been left reeling and “heartbroken” after a 7000kg shipment of its high‑grade cacao was spoiled after an inspection by US customs officials
Corin and Sally Storkey, co-founders of natural health supplements business Seleno Health, say their container shipment of high-grade ceremonial cacao from Peru was left exposed to the elements and arrived mouldy and largely unsalvageable.
Every box and bag in the 20-foot container - $220,000 worth of cacao - was slashed open and left unsealed.
The pair had been waiting on the shipment since September, after several delays. But their joy at its arrival in New Zealand last week was short-lived: when they opened the container, they found every bag slashed open, cacao spilled everywhere, boxes smashed and product strewn across the floor.
“It's been a really emotional week for us, on many levels,” Corin Storkey told The Post.
“When you pour your heart and soul into your business and you take a risk, and you do everything that you can to try and grow something, and then to be shaded like that was, it was pretty gutting.”
Storkey and his wife Peruvian wife, Sally, had invested their life savings - plus borrowed funds - to secure thecacao supply during a global shortage, ensuring stock for their 300 retailers and online customers.
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Storkey estimated that only about 50% of the stock may be salvageable, but recovering and repackaging it safely would cost around $10,000.
He also expected to lose between $20,000 and $30,000 in monthly income.
“When we opened the container, it looked like a bomb had gone off. They didn't even repalletise anything.”
Calls to insurance companies and shipping agents brought further heartbreak, Storkey said, as they were refused compensation because the policies excluded Customs-related damage.
“We've been importing for eight years, it’s not uncommon to be drug tested. We lose between one to 5% of stock each time, and we account for that. Every time a shipment comes in, we will see stickers on boxes. But the extent of this is just unheard of.”
He said no one he dealt with - from the shipping agencies to the loading team in Peru - had ever seen anything like it, with every box opened, every bag slashed and no care taken in repacking the product.
Storkey said he was unsure of his rights when it came to damaged goods from US Customs seizures.
He questioned why US Customs had opened the container at all, saying it was a transit shipment that was never destined for the United States. He said they had been forced to use a 20‑foot container, which meant the route went via Oakland, but he could not understand why officials would “open and ransack it” in the way they did.
Seleno Health was now focused on trying to secure more stock from its suppliers overseas as soon as it could, but that would come at huge financial cost for the family-owned business.
“We work with two small family farms in Peru, and they're devastated, because these are artisan cacao producers …This is not chocolate, this is not what you're going to find in Hersheys. This is like, the creme de la creme of cacao in the world. We've contacted them and they don’t even know if they’ll have enough beans at the moment.”
Despite the circumstances, Storkey said he and Sally had received “unbelievable” support from the community after he shared the situation online.
One Christchurch woman had offered to put on a Peruvian feast to generate and donate profits for Seleno Health, others had set up a Givealittle page to help the business recoup losses.
The company was started eight years ago after the couple quit their corporate jobs to follow their passion for natural health and wellbeing.
The pair were unsure if their business would be able to survive, but they were hopeful.
“We're determined and we want to bounce back from this,” Storkey said.