P.E.I. mill product stuck in Libya

A P.E.I. company has found itself caught in the middle of the political turmoil in Libya.

Belfast Mini Mills sells equipment to a camel hair processing plant in the Libyan town of Sert.

But due to the chaos, $200,000 worth of small mills the company sent over there are stuck in a customs facility in Tripoli.

"We thought it was already on the job site, and that everything was good," said co-owner Doug Nobles. "That's what we thought up until two weeks ago and we realized it's not going anywhere. Nothing's going anywhere."

It's still unclear how long it will take the company to get its equipment — which turns raw fibers like alpaca, sheep, and even dog into yarn — out of Libyan customs.

"It's frustrating because we like to get on the job, get the job done, get everybody up and running, our guys go in and they teach everybody how to run the equipment and give further training," said Nobles.

The company has 150 international buyers from 20 different countries including Argentina, Australia and Libya.

Graham Labonte has also travelled to Libya. He builds the mills and then trains people on them.

Labonte was supposed to be back in Libya three weeks ago. Now he doesn't know when it will be safe to return.

"Yeah you fear for your safety, because we don't know, there's a lot of unknowns," said Labonte. "If something was to happen, if there was a car accident, or something was to happen, what would happen to us?"

The company is still owed about $170,000 on the Libyan contract. Nobles has a liaison who's working on getting back some of that money. With the crisis in the country, it's not clear how long that will take.