Friday, March 25, 2022
CapitalPress.com 5
USDA to subsidize farm exports at Seattle port
By DON JENKINS
Capital Press
The USDA will subsidize the
export of farm goods from the Port
of Seattle, providing relief to agri-
cultural exporters who have seen
costs increase because of trucking
and shipping delays.
Agricultural exporters who stage
containers at a 49-acre site near Ter-
minal 46 will be eligible for reim-
bursements of $200 per dry con-
tainer and $400 per refrigerated
container, the USDA announced.
The money will help pay for
storing and moving the containers.
Farm Service Agency will publish
details in the coming weeks on how
exporters can apply for payments,
according to the USDA.
Agricultural exporters report
being frustrated as shippers leave
U.S. West Coast ports quickly to
go back and get more Asian-made
consumer goods. U.S. farm goods,
meanwhile, are left behind, while
overseas customers wait.
Anderson Hay and Grain Co.
CEO and President Mark Ander-
son said the subsidy and near-ter-
Port of Seattle
Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., speaks March 18 during a tour of
the Port of Seattle with USDA Under Secretary Jenny Moffi tt, left
of Cantwell. The USDA will subsidize the export of farm goods
through the port.
minal staging should help. He said
his port-related costs have risen by
75% to 100% as disruptions mount.
Delays in exporting goods
threaten the U.S. agricultural’s rep-
utation for reliability, he said. Posi-
tioning loaded containers near the
terminal should help exporters meet
ever-changing ship schedules, he
said.
“I think we’ll have to see how it
will play out,” Anderson said. “It’s
great the USDA is seeing the need
to step up.
“The global ocean movement of
cargo is like a Swiss watch. Right
now, it’s out of balance,” he said.
The Northwest Seaport Alliance,
made up of the Seattle and Tacoma
ports, opened the off -dock site last
May for all types of goods waiting
to be export.
The Alliance hopes to extend
the USDA subsidies to farm goods
exported from the Port of Tacoma,
ports spokeswoman Melanie Stam-
baugh said. “We certainly have the
ability to expand it to Tacoma,” she
said.
Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash.,
and USDA Under Secretary Jenny
Moffi tt toured the Seattle site
Friday.
The 49-acre site — four stop-
lights from Interstate 90 — will
position containers to catch ships at
short notice, Cantwell said.
“Our growers came to us with
a problem,” she said. “A container
would be scheduled to go out on
Tuesday, and they’d get a call on
Friday night, saying it’s going on
Sunday instead.
“When they have to move that
product all the way across the state,
there just isn’t enough time,” she
said.
Idaho pea, lentil and garbanzo
bean processor Bert Brocke joined
Cantwell at the press conference.
“This is exactly what we need,” he
said.
In an interview, Brocke said he
once exported about 40 containers
a week through the Seattle port. He
said he’s now down to about fi ve,
“on a good week.”
He said he’s had to send prod-
ucts by rail to Houston to get them
to customers in Europe and South
America because he can no longer
export to those continents through
Seattle.
“It’s working, but it’s extremely
expensive,” he said.
The USDA announced a sim-
ilar partnership with the Port of
Oakland in January. The National
Milk Producers Federation and
U.S. Dairy Export Council issued
a statement March 18 praising the
opening of the additional site in
Seattle.
U.S. Department of Transpor-
tation supply-chain report last
month said the world probably has
enough shipping containers, but
too many are going unused.
Rates for shipping loaded con-
tainers from Asia to the U.S. West
Coast were 19 times higher in the
fall of 2021 than in the fall of 2019,
pre-pandemic, according to the
report.
Senate panel passes shipping Canadian Pacifi c Railway,
bill to aid farm exports
Union agree to arbitration,
resuming freight shipments
By DON JENKINS
Capital Press
The Senate Commerce
Committee on Tuesday
passed legislation to give the
Federal Maritime Commis-
sion more muscle to lean on
foreign shipping companies
to export U.S. farm goods.
The bipartisan Ocean
Shipping
Reform
Act
directs the commission to
bar shippers from “unrea-
sonably declining” to haul
agricultural products. The
commission would have
to write a rule defi ning
“unreasonable.”
“This is the top ask by
American exporters whose
products have been left on
the docks,” said committee
Chairwoman Maria Cant-
well, D-Wash.
Democratic and Repub-
lican senators from farm
states complain ocean carri-
ers are stranding agricultural
goods at West Coast ports
in their rush to go back and
pick up more goods for the
lucrative “front haul” from
Asia to the U.S.
The House passed a sim-
ilar bill in December to give
the maritime commission
more authority to demand
shipping companies jus-
tify their hauling prac-
tices. The shipping indus-
try says the bills are fl awed
and shift blame for land-side
logistical snarls onto ocean
carriers.
Washington State Potato
Commission director of
government relations Matt
Harris said the commission
supports the bills.
Growers have fl own or
trucked potatoes to cus-
tomers and far-fl ung ports
as exporting from the West
Coast becomes more diffi -
cult, he said. “We’re see-
ing products stymied by the
inability to move to Asia
through the ports,” he said.
The World Shipping
Council, which represents
international carriers, warns
the reforms contemplated
by federal lawmakers will
make supply-chain prob-
lems worse.
The shipping council
says COVID disrupted port
By SIERRA DAWN McCLAIN
Capital Press
Port of Seattle
Containers stacked at the Port of Seattle. The U.S. Sen-
ate Commerce Committee passed a bill March 22 to give
the Federal Maritime Commission more authority to re-
quire international ocean carriers to justify their haul-
ing practices of U.S. farm goods.
operations while also driv-
ing a stay-at-home shop-
ping surge by U.S. con-
sumers. As a result, import
cargo containers crowded
ports, according to the
council.
The shipping compa-
nies complain they’re being
asked to do the impossible:
Quickly take away empty
containers while also taking
away loaded containers.
Harris said growers are
squeezed because the ships
“grab and go,” shortening
the time farmers have to get
potatoes into congested ports
and positioned for export.
Ships won’t wait, he said.
“We’re just the ‘back
haul,’” Harris said. “We’re
not causing the container to
move.”
The shipping council
says ocean carriers are com-
mitted to serving U.S. agri-
culture. The council notes
that U.S. farm exports have
risen to record levels since
COVID hit. The USDA
predicts that 2022 will be
another record year.
That is based on dollars.
The volume of major com-
modity exports declined
in 2021 and is expected
to decline again this year,
according to the USDA.
“Prices have gone up, vol-
umes have shrunk,” Harris
said.
Cantwell’s committee held
a hearing March 3 on the ship-
ping reform act. Federal Mar-
itime Commission Chair-
man Daniel Maff ei agreed
the commission needs more
authority, but warned against
too much regulation.
Making ocean carriers
meet export quotas may cause
them to avoid export ports, he
said.
Nine shipping companies
— which have grouped them-
selves into three alliances —
dominate ocean-going trade
between Asia and the U.S.
Cantwell accused them of
taking advantage of their mar-
ket domination.
Canadian Pacifi c Rail-
way Ltd. and the union
representing its conduc-
tors and engineers have
agreed to binding arbitra-
tion to resolve their labor
dispute, freeing the rail-
way to resume freight ship-
ments after a two-day work
stoppage.
Freight service was set
to resume at noon Moun-
tain time on March 22
The work stoppage had
threatened to disrupt a
major agricultural supply
chain, halting the move-
ment of grain, coal, potash
for fertilizer and other farm
inputs. If the shutdown had
lasted long, farm groups
say it could have been “cat-
astrophic” for farmers and
the fl ow of goods.
Tuesday’s
agree-
ment follows six months
of mediation and con-
tract negotiations between
Canadian Pacifi c Railway
and the Teamsters Canada
Rail Conference, a union
which represents more than
3,000 of the company’s
railway workers.
The union has been
seeking increased wages,
pension benefi ts and more
rest times for workers.
The past few days,
workers have been on
strike and the railway com-
pany has locked workers
out of its facilities. Now,
the two sides are seeking
resolution.
“(Canadian Pacifi c) is
pleased to have reached
agreement with the (Team-
sters Canada Rail Confer-
ence) Negotiating Com-
mittee to enter into binding
arbitration and end this
work stoppage,” said Keith
Creel, president and CEO
of the railway company.
Details of the agree-
ment were not disclosed.
Often, binding arbitration
involves union represen-
tatives and an employer
presenting their con-
tract demands to an inde-
pendent arbitrator who is
responsible for fi nding a
common ground and set-
tling terms such as wages
and benefi ts.
The past few days, busi-
nesses, farm groups, pol-
iticians and the public
have been urging the two
sides to reach a deal so as
not to further disrupt the
world’s already-shaky sup-
ply chains.
LEGAL
NOTICE OF BLUEBERRY GROWERS COMMISSION BUDGET HEARING
TO: ALL OREGON BLUEBERRY PRODUCERS
Notice is hereby given that a public hearing will be held pursuant to
ORS 576.416 (5), on Monday, April 25, 2022 at 12:00 noon at Chemeketa
Events at Winema, Room 210, 4001 Winema Place NE, Salem, upon a
proposed budget for operation of the Oregon Blueberry Commission
during the fiscal year July 1, 2022 through June 30, 2023. At this
hearing any producer of Oregon Blueberries has a right to be heard
with respect to the proposed budget, a copy of which is available for
public inspection, under reasonable circumstances, in the office of
each County Extension Agent in Oregon. For further information,
contact the Oregon Blueberry Commission business office, P.O.
Box 3366, Salem, Oregon 97302, telephone 503-364-2944. The
meeting location is accessible to persons with disabilities. Please
make any requests for an interpreter for the hearing impaired or
for other accommodation for persons with disabilities at least 48
hours before the meeting by contacting the Commission office at
S285962-1
503-364-2944.
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