Agriculture and forest products exporters must work with our supply chain service providers this year to remain competitive in the increasingly crowded global marketplace.
Virtually everything produced in agriculture and forest products in the United States can also be sourced elsewhere in the world. If we can’t deliver affordably and dependently, our foreign customers will look to other countries to meet their needs, as they did in 2002 and 2014-2015 when West Coast ports slowed or shut down. Together, we must address:
- Chassis. Is there sufficient volume and competition between chassis providers? Are exporters being charged more than the big US importers for chassis?
- Will the relentless stream of ocean carrier mergers and acquisitions result in less than optimal competition? As ocean carriers consolidate further into three global alliances, sharing space on the new generation of mega-ships, will there be sufficient frequency of sailings, and sufficient direct port pairs, to serve agriculture exports?
- Will marine terminal management and labor, already struggling to load large volumes of agricultural exports, embrace new operations, technology and methodologies to increase velocity?
- Truck weight limits in the United States remain far below global norms, resulting in higher US transport costs and increased congestion — a competitive barrier to US exports. As hours-of-service rules are enforced by electronic logging devices, our transportation costs could increase 20 percent while exacerbating truck driver shortages.
Agriculture and forest products exporters have no choice but to work closely with carriers and terminals. We need their efficient services; they need our cargo. Neither should be taken for granted.