STRANDED specialty crop companies want 'teeth' in container rules to help fix supply chain backlog, reports Fargo, North Dakota's Agweek.
To this end, us Minnesota Democratic Senator Amy Klobucha and South Dakota Democratic Senator John Thune are moving a bill to pressure carriers to fill containers with agricultural products instead of sending them back to Asia empty.
Grain handler Rick Brandenburger, president of Richland Innovative Food Crops of Breckenridge, Minnesota, says the company is getting only one-third of their needed containers and wants 'teeth' in any efforts to fix the problem.
Richland IFC, of Dwight, North Dakota, is getting a fraction of the shipping containers it needs. Shipping lines companies are sending them empty to Asia rather than allowing US ag exporters to fill them with crops farmers grow for export.
Richland IFC develops, contracts and ships specialty food-grade crops - soybeans and corn - domestically and internationally. Company owners have export roots dating to 1979.
Richland IFC has sold 200 containers per month, mostly in the 20-foot containers that are sold into Asia. The company has received an alarming declining percentage of containers ordered in recent months: November 2021, 68 per cent; December 2021, 38 per cent; January 2022, 28 per cent; February 2022, 21 per cent.
The problem is that the ag export containers are back-haul load for containers that ship higher-valued goods into the US.
The head haul are the trips into the US, which Brandenburger says costs shippers US$10,000 to $25,000. Going back to Asia, ag exporters historically have paid about one-fourth the rate, currently about $3,500 per container (which includes trucking fees to the rail yard ).
In the past two years - especially in the past six months - shipping companies trying to serve strong US demand for Asian products, apparently have made a financial decision to quickly send the containers back to Asia empty. This helps them serve US consumers, but leaves exporters high and dry.
'It's a classic economic model,' Mr Brandenburger said. 'They're more profitable by refusing exports and returning them empty.'
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To this end, us Minnesota Democratic Senator Amy Klobucha and South Dakota Democratic Senator John Thune are moving a bill to pressure carriers to fill containers with agricultural products instead of sending them back to Asia empty.
Grain handler Rick Brandenburger, president of Richland Innovative Food Crops of Breckenridge, Minnesota, says the company is getting only one-third of their needed containers and wants 'teeth' in any efforts to fix the problem.
Richland IFC, of Dwight, North Dakota, is getting a fraction of the shipping containers it needs. Shipping lines companies are sending them empty to Asia rather than allowing US ag exporters to fill them with crops farmers grow for export.
Richland IFC develops, contracts and ships specialty food-grade crops - soybeans and corn - domestically and internationally. Company owners have export roots dating to 1979.
Richland IFC has sold 200 containers per month, mostly in the 20-foot containers that are sold into Asia. The company has received an alarming declining percentage of containers ordered in recent months: November 2021, 68 per cent; December 2021, 38 per cent; January 2022, 28 per cent; February 2022, 21 per cent.
The problem is that the ag export containers are back-haul load for containers that ship higher-valued goods into the US.
The head haul are the trips into the US, which Brandenburger says costs shippers US$10,000 to $25,000. Going back to Asia, ag exporters historically have paid about one-fourth the rate, currently about $3,500 per container (which includes trucking fees to the rail yard ).
In the past two years - especially in the past six months - shipping companies trying to serve strong US demand for Asian products, apparently have made a financial decision to quickly send the containers back to Asia empty. This helps them serve US consumers, but leaves exporters high and dry.
'It's a classic economic model,' Mr Brandenburger said. 'They're more profitable by refusing exports and returning them empty.'
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