Farm exporters air their frustrations at port hearing
By Peter Hecht California agricultural exporters met with members of Congress, the chairman of the Federal Maritime Commission and Port of Oakland officials last week, expressing concerns about continued supply-chain disruptions and difficul- ties getting California products onto out- bound ships. California tree-nut growers, in partic- ular, have been frustrated as stockpiles of
nuts have been stranded in warehouses. Meanwhile, they complained that ocean carriers were heading back to markets in Asia and elsewhere transporting empty shipping containers. The Port of Oakland has long been a crit- ical hub for California agricultural exports. But because of shipping delays from the port, California almond growers and pro- cessers this summer launched what they called the “almond express,” an alternate
rail transport system to move their goods from Oakland to the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. “We would love to go out of Oakland, but if Oakland continues to be dysfunc- tional or unattractive to the carriers, we’re going to have to go to where the car- riers are,” said Aubrey Bettencourt, pres- ident and CEO of the Almond Alliance of California. “And that means we are spending money to send loads across
the country to get them to our markets.” Some nut growers have reported ship- ping product by rail to ports as far away as Virginia to get products on ships to export markets. Bettencourt appeared at the Port of Oakland roundtable at Oakland’s Jack London Square along with Richard Matoian, president of the American Pistachio Growers, and Robert Verloop, ex- ecutive director and CEO of the California Walnut Board, and various farm processors and shippers. “We heard from agricultural exporters today, but that’s not the only exporters that are hurting as a result of the imbalances tak- ing place,” said U.S. Rep. John Garamendi, D-Walnut Grove, in a press conference held by members of Congress after the event. Other countries are readily importing products into the Oakland port, Garamendi said, “but when agriculture wants to export, gee, there’s no space available. There’s no containers available. You can’t get space on a ship that probably has 50% to 70% of con- tainers empty when it leaves California.” Federal Maritime Commission Chairman Daniel Maffei, who spoke at the hearing, said getting empty containers to
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Colorado Continued from Page 3
Rights to Colorado River water are con- trolled by an interstate compact reached in 1922, which allocated the largest share of the river to California. Now the Bureau of Reclamation, in an- nouncing a notice of intent to prepare a supplemental environmental review of current operations, is signaling it may take emergency steps that could affect available water supplies. The environmental review will consider three alternatives with the most severe al- lowing for unilateral actions should states not sufficiently address current and pro- jected risks to the river system. This would revise rules that govern the “timing and volumes of potential water delivery reduc- tions” in lean water years. “We are taking immediate steps now to revise the operating guidelines to pro- tect the Colorado River System and sta- bilize rapidly declining reservoir storage elevations,” Reclamation Commissioner Camille Calimlim Touton said in a state- ment. She said officials are working to “develop long-term, sustainable plans that reflect the climate-driven realities facing the Colorado River basin.” Last month, the Department of the Interior announced that $4 billion in funding was being allocated for water management and conservation efforts in the Colorado River basin. Farmers reduc- ing plantings or investing in water-saving irrigation systems may apply for grants to offset costs of conservation efforts. (Peter Hecht is chief editor of publications for the California Farm Bureau. He may be contacted at phecht@cfbf.com.)
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6 Ag Alert November 9, 2022
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