March/April 2022 - 10

LOGISTICS
SHIPPING BACKUPS
Supply chain woes, high freight costs
expected to continue
LABOR SHORTAGES ARE AT ROOT OF SHIPPING,
TRUCKING MANDATES FURTHER ISSUES
By Zeke Jennings
Editor
ON JAN. 6, 2022, there were a
record 105 shipping vessels anchored
or loitering off the coast of Southern
California waiting for openings to
dock at the ports of Long Beach and
Los Angeles.
On Jan. 6, 2021, there were 32.
Through the first eight months of
2021, having 32 vessels waiting was
on the high side for the Southern
California ports. Normally, it was in
the teens or twenties. Near the end of
August is when numbers soared and
breaking records became a common
occurrence.
L.A. and Long Beach do more volume
than any other seaports in the U.S.
They are followed by New York-New
Jersey and Savannah, Georgia, but
things aren't much better at either of
those ports, nor are they at Seattle or
Charleston, South Carolina.
10 MARCH/APR I L 2 02 2
It's not just a struggle to get goods in
and out of U.S. seaports, it's a struggle to
do so anywhere in the world, including
through the major Chinese ports, Hong
Kong and Rotterdam, Netherlands -
Europe's largest port.
Mov i ng goods dome s t ica l ly
throughout the U.S. also has become
problematic. During Potato Expo in
January in Anaheim, California, Tracey
Chow, a government affairs specialist for
Western Growers, said members began
complaining of shipping problems in late
2020, starting with nut growers. Things
have only snowballed from there.
" Now that we're a year into it,
essentially every commodity has been
affected, " Chow said. " Before it was
just tree nuts, then it was citrus, then
it was stone fruits (and other specialty
crops). Now all the non-specialty crop
commodities have been affected (i.e.
soybeans, corn, etc.).
" They're all getting hammered and
probably even worse than California
because they're dealing with rail and
trucking to get to the ports. "
Delays are frustrating and costly
for everyone. When you're moving
a perishable product, such as fresh
produce, delays result in loss of
commodity and food waste.
" (Port delays have) led to fruit
spoilage, " said Stewart Lapage, an
Alberta, Canada-based logist ics
executive with The Oppenheimer
Group. " Tens of thousands (containers)
have spoiled before they have even
touched the ground. "
Lapage was among the panelists
during a recent International Fresh
Produce Association virtual town hall
on supply chain issues. Experts say
the labor shortage is the first domino
in what is a multifaceted array of
problems in the current supply chain
system. The pandemic has exasperated
the situation, leaving many people
unable, unauthorized or unwilling
to work.

March/April 2022

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of March/April 2022

March/April 2022 - 1
March/April 2022 - 2
March/April 2022 - 3
March/April 2022 - 4
March/April 2022 - 5
March/April 2022 - 6
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