Exports Continued from Page 1
hurt him and his growers financially, because buyers will not pay until they receive their shipments. What’s more, he said, California agri- cultural exporters continue to lose mar- ket share. He noted some customers, wanting to ensure they have product in time for Christmas, are already ordering walnuts from Chile, which is harvesting a new crop now. “We’ve lost our reputation of being this reliable, high-quality supplier because we can’t get (product) there on a timely basis,” Carriere said. With transit time to Southeast Asia still around five to six weeks fromwhen con- tainers are loaded, shipping fresh fruit overseas remains an ongoing challenge, said David Najarian, vice president of ParamountExportCo. inAlamedaCounty, which exports fresh fruits and vegetables. Noting the “strained” West Coast port network hasn’t been able to efficiently process the current higher volume of im- port cargo, he said he sees two solutions: “Import less fromoverseasor startworking onamulti-year project toenlarge theWest Coast port operations.” (ChingLeeisanassistanteditorofAgAlert. She may be contacted at clee@cfbf.com.)
Oaklandport, exporters say theopening in Marchof anew“pop-up”yardforpickupof emptycontainershasoffered limitedrelief. The temporary hub, located offsite of the port, allows shippers to stage export loads while avoiding busy marine terminals wheremost empty containers are stored. Asof lastweek, thereweremorethan500 containers in the yard, said port spokes- man Robert Bernardo. The port saw 83 ships stopping inOakland inMarch, com- pared to 93 a year ago. Reduced vessel ar- rivalswere due inpart to aCOVID-related port shutdown in Shanghai, the port said. Thoughtheporthasenoughemptycon- tainers tocover currentdemand,Bernardo saidsupplies remain“inconstant flux.”He saidhe expects inventory to tightenas im- ports fromChina begin to resume. Aside from dealing with a shortage of containers, agricultural shippers say they struggle to secure bookings, which often get canceledor “rolled,”meaning thecargo wasn’t loaded onto the scheduled vessel, usually because there’s no room. DonBarton, aSan JoaquinCounty tree- nut grower and walnut handler, said his company’s bookings were rolled somany times that product his “loyal customers in Israel” expected in December finally arrived thismonth. “It’s inexcusable,” he said, calling the delays “unconscionable.” But he acknowledged “the pure economics of it.” The cost to ship a 40-foot container from China to Los Angeles surged from $2,000 to $15,000 during the past two years. The backhaul from Los Angeles to Shanghai cost $1,400. “It ’s hard to argue,” Barton said. “We’re also businesspeople; we under- stand the numbers.” California agricultural exporters are “prepared to accept higher shipping costs,” Barton said, if that would encour- agesteamship lines tobring their vessels to Oakland. But there are limits. “There’s no way,” he said, that farm companies could match thecurrent $12,000 to$15,000price for containers going the other direction. In their letter, farm groups asked the Biden administration to help convene a meeting with ocean carriers “to ne- gotiate a restoration of export services
Tugboats assist cargo ships to dock at the Port of Oakland in March, when 83 ships stopped at the Northern California port compared to 93 the previous March.
immediately.” The problem is urgent, they said, because in amatter of months, farms will begin harvesting new crops while what’s left of last year’s crop re- mains in storage due to inability to ship. Almond shippers would need to move 1.4 billion pounds of the nut across do- mestic and export markets before August tomeet 2021’s leftover crop. Moving such a volume would require 31,000 to 34,000 containers, farmgroups said. To achieve their 10% average annual carryout, walnut marketers would need about 18,000containers toship398million poundsofproductbeforeSeptember.They list projected losses todate at $600million to $700milliondue to shipping problems, not including lost market share, lost con- tracts and increased costs for freight and other related fees. Isomof the processors association said he considers ongoing shipping issues a trade barrier that warrants government intervention. Because most ocean carri- ers are foreign-owned, he acknowledged the U.S. lacks jurisdiction over the com- panies. But he said the trade imbalance needs to be addressed, perhaps through imposition of tariffs. “Under President Trump, they did a lot of things on trade; some of it was called unfair,” Isom said. “Maybe it was, but at the same time, this isn’t fair. We have no way to resolve this.”
Barton said the U.S. may not be able to force steamship lines to change their practices through legislation, but henoted the U.S. does control is own ports and the unloading of ships. He suggested the U.S. could use this leverage to require ships to leavewith full containers. Meanwhile, Carriere said the 50 loads of walnuts that sit in his warehouse
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May 4, 2022 Ag Alert 9
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