Modesto-area ag leaders join plea to unclog ports so dairy, nuts and more can flow
Agricultural leaders in the Modesto area joined in a letter Monday detailing the effects of clogged ports on exports.
They urged the Biden administration to step up its efforts to ease the flow of dairy products, nuts, fruits and vegetables. Ports in Oakland and elsewhere have slowed due to a shortage of ocean-going containers and cargo-handling equipment.
The letter went to Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and Brian Deese, director of the National Economic Council.
The local signers are Anja Raudabaugh, CEO of Western United Dairies; Aubrey Bettencourt, president and CEO of the Almond Alliance of California; and Don Barton of the California Walnut Handlers Coalition.
“These export shipping challenges have been damaging to our community, our industry and our nation’s position in the global economy, depressing our foreign market opportunities,” the letter reads.
Exports are vital for nuts
Almonds and walnuts are major industries in Stanislaus County and rely heavily on exports. The county also is a dairy powerhouse, but the foreign sales are mostly the powdered byproducts of cheese, butter and other manufacturing.
Stanislaus has some fresh fruit and vegetable production but lags behind the Salinas Valley and more southerly parts of the San Joaquin Valley.
The letter deals mainly with the containers that load up with farm products and head by truck or rail to the ports. The signers thanked the administration for measures to date, including “pop up” handling yards at several ports. They urged federal officials to meet with shipping companies on other solutions.
The letter notes that three out of four containers at American ports now return to Asia empty. Filling them with farm products has long helped balance trade with China, Europe and other markets.
Almond and walnut companies can store the products for several months before they are shipped and payments are received. They try to minimize the carryover from one harvest year to another.
California almond handlers had about 2 billion pounds still on hand in February, up 229% from July 2021, the letter says. That has led to a decline in prices paid to growers, which had already sagged due to a bumper 2020 crop.
Losses already to tariffs
The state’s walnut industry also reports an increase in stored product and a drop in prices to growers.
“This is on top of the $1.7 billion in losses over the past four years due to tariffs/trade wars and other COVID-induced losses,” the letter states.
It notes that American milk powder producers are losing part of the China market to New Zealand, a large player.
Peaches, nectarines and other fresh fruit from the south Valley cannot sit for long in storage, the letter said. Nor can the salad greens and other produce of the Salinas area.
“Without the certainty of ship routes out of Oakland or reasonable receiving windows, the crop is either dumped onto the domestic market (where it drives down prices), or it goes unharvested entirely (forcing the farmer to eat the loss),” the letter says.
It was also signed by Jamie Johansson, president of the California Farm Bureau Federation; Dave Puglia, president and CEO of Western Growers; Jim Mulhern, president and CEO of the National Milk Producers Foundation; and Krysta Harden, president and CEO of the U.S. Dairy Export Council.
