All eyes are on some of the nation’s largest ag shipping ports as dock workers prepare to leave the job. The pending strike comes during one of the busiest seasons for agriculture, and there has been little progress in mitigating this strike at the East and Gulf Coast ports.
Shippers have already begun moving products to the West Coast, but say a strike would be catastrophic for the supply chain. Workers say they will walk off the job Tuesday if both sides cannot come to an agreement.
More than 50 ag groups have asked President Biden to step in before it is too late, including the Farm Bureau which says unrestricted access to these ports is critical.
“They make up over 75% of the total U.S. ag export volume. When we’re thinking about this, the potential strike would mainly disrupt containerized ag exports, which account for 30% of those U.S. water-borne exports by volume. The remaining 70%, often grains and oil seeds, are shipped by bulk carriers, which are usually managed by independent workforces and won’t be impacted by the strike. That said, the strike would apply to most East and Gulf Coast ports, which ship about half of all containerized ag exports and 70% of ag containerized imports. In total, the disruption is expected to impact about $1.4 billion in ag imports and exports each week that the strike is in place,” said Danny Munch.
Breaking it down by sector, numbers from the Farm Bureau show around 80 percent of water-borne exports of U.S. poultry leave ports that would be affected, and 56 percent of raw cotton, 36 percent of red meat, 30 percent of dairy, and 6 percent of U.S. soybeans are in jeopardy if a strike happens.
