The Bunge trading group has lost a more than $2m claim over a modest number of rats that got on to a chartered grain ship in the Brazilian port of Paranagua.

Fewer than 20 rats were involved so the Bunge bill amounts to more than $100,000 per rodent.

The 2004 incident has led to litigation in Brazil, eight arbitration claims and a London high court trial on the question of whether soyabean pellets and a colony of rats together amount to a dangerous cargo.

Whose rat is this?
London high court judge, Justice Tomlinson, has just expended more than 13,000 words to confirm the arbitrators view that a few rats in 44,000 tonnes of soya meal pellets does not constitute a “dangerous cargo.”

Bunge...