More than a third of all container capacity is now stuck on ships around the world. The congestion is primarily in China and the west coast.
At last check, more than 160 ships were waiting to get into the LA and Long Beach ports. The bottlenecks have forced some retailers to lease their own ships to beat the delays.
Fixing inland waterways would help alleviate the backlog, according to dozens of farm groups.
They sent comments to the Transportation Department on how to ease the supply chain. The groups cited many factors for the situation, but they say that rehabilitating aging infrastructure on the upper Mississippi and Illinois rivers would help, along with adding seven more locks.
They also encouraged the Secretary to stay flexible with ag hauler hours.
Related:
Cargo ship congestion could cost the ag sector billions
CoBank: supply chain snarls are likely to persist well into 2022
Soy Transportation Coalition on supply chain challenges as more ships are added to west coast logjam
There is a call for major upgrades to ag transportation