Items Tagged with 'containers'

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.

Difficulties in getting containers full of U.S. ag commodities on ocean-going vessels persists and U.S. dairy exporters are still losing money because of the problems, according to the U.S. Dairy Export Council and the National Milk Producers Federation. That’s why the groups say they’re asking the Biden administration to take more action.

Congestion is snarling West Coast ports and capacity for U.S. ag exports is dropping as ocean carriers agree to send back empty containers to China, but upper Midwest farmers, food manufacturers and forestry product producers are about to get access to a new path to buyers around the world.

Support on and off Capitol hill is building for legislation that would help U.S. ag commodities get to foreign buyers despite bottlenecks at some of the biggest U.S. ports.

Reps. John Garamendi, D-Calif., and Dusty Johnson, R-S.D., today introduced legislation to stop shipping companies from denying U.S. exporters the ability to get their commodities overseas as well as protect against excessive port fees.