The American dairy industry is asking President Biden for additional measures to get containers full of American dairy and agricultural goods back on ocean vessels. Despite the establishment of extra temporary transshipment docks at several West Coast ports, container transportation to Asian countries still shows gaps.
Due to the high demand from Chinese exporters for containers, more and more shipping lines are returning emptied containers immediately to China instead of sailing to other American ports to pick up return cargo. As a result, American export shipments are taking increasingly longer and transport rates are rising.
The US Dairy Export Council and the National Milk Producers Federation express gratitude for the measures already taken but state that more needs to be done.
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“Supply chain challenges alone cost American dairy exporters more than one and a half billion last year,” said an agriculture spokesperson. The groups are asking Ministers Vilsack (Agriculture) and Buttigieg (Transportation) to prioritize docks for ships willing to also carry return cargo. They also request special transport routes in busy ports for ‘fast-track’ passage of food products.
Priority access to berths should be given to incoming ships if they agree to load containers with agricultural goods rather than departing with empty containers – as many have done.
Furthermore, they urge the Department of Agriculture to create more ‘pop-up terminals’ similar to those already established in the ocean ports of Oakland and Seattle, and to resume publishing the Ocean Shipping Container Availability Report. Until recently, this report tracked the availability of ocean containers throughout the United States.