Items Tagged with 'Federal Maritime Commission'

Disruptions in the Red Sea due to attacks from Houthi rebels and a drought-induced slowdown of goods through the Panama Canal are driving up freight costs and putting a focus on the vulnerabilities of key chokepoints in agricultural shipping lanes.

Criticism is piling up on the Federal Maritime Commission’s attempt to define exactly what a reasonable reason is for ocean carrier companies to refuse to haul U.S. farm commodity exports to their destinations overseas.

Archer Daniels Midland company CEO Juan Ricardo Luciano said in the company’s third-quarter earnings call Tuesday that low water levels on the Mississippi River will likely reduce soy exports from North America.

USDA has sharply raised its forecast for food inflation this year.

Congress last week made it clear that ocean carrier companies cannot “unreasonably” refuse to book space on ships for U.S. ag exports, but now it’s up to the Federal Maritime Commission to decide exactly what that means and the fate of foreign markets for U.S. some farm commodities is at stake.

“Not that I’m aware of.” House Agriculture Chairman David Scott says that answer from Tim Schellpeper, the CEO of meatpacking giant JBS USA, at a hearing in April is enough to justify setting up a special investigator’s office at USDA to look into meat industry practices.

A key Republican lawmaker is firing a warning shot at the Biden administration over Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack’s broad spending authority.