Harvest season for summer fruits and other crops is in full swing, yet California agricultural exporters fear that continued delays at West Coast ports could lead to more products perishing before reaching their destination. This inevitably frustrates customers who will likely look for other ways to satisfy orders if conditions cannot improve.
This impediment is not the first shipping challenge faced recently by the industry. Earlier this year, the Agriculture Transportation Coalition argued that ocean carriers were unfairly discriminating by refusing or canceling exporter bookings and instead prioritizing repositioning empty containers back to Asia.
Unable to reassure customers that their orders will arrive on time and in the condition they anticipate, West Coast farming exporters have been working in a state of uncertainty, caused by the major vessel backlogs in areas like Los Angeles and Long Beach. Some recent shipments have taken an additional two to three weeks to reach their intended destination, which is an unreasonable timeline for most perishable products. In addition, the industry is facing a shortage of both refrigerated containers as well as the chassis that are used for moving this equipment.
As a solution to this issue, some exporters have considered using air transportation, however, the increase in shipping costs has led to hesitation from sellers and their overseas buyers. In addition, if too many agricultural business owners decide to shift their shipping to airfreight, capacity problems will arise and delays again will follow.
Another approach to this issue involves addressing port productivity delays head-on by offering better guidance to workers. The Pacific Maritime Association and the International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 10 announced last week that they would provide training to hundreds of existing workers by the end of June, to alleviate vessel congestion and enhance the handling of record volumes at the Port of Oakland.
Because it is still early in the season, several agricultural exporters have not settled on any permanent changes to their shipping procedures. Most are still willing to risk sending perishable goods by sea, for now, however, as peak production approaches in about a month, the additional quantity of goods will necessitate the need to move product faster to avoid decay. These issues are unique to this industry because unlike dry freight, the seasonality and shelf life of fruits and vegetables make early distribution especially challenging.
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