Farm Beat: Much of Modesto area’s bounty sails from Oakland

The Port of Oakland has released an online video called “What’s in the Box,” meaning those freight containers stacked by the thousands on ships.

Answer: an awful lot of nuts, wine, dairy goods, and other products from farms and processing plants in Stanislaus and nearby counties.

The video appears the same week that the U.S. Department of Agriculture released its quarterly projection for farm exports. They continue strong, despite drought across much of the West and a bird flu outbreak among Midwestern egg producers.

Getting back to the port, it handles 99 percent of the container traffic in and out of Northern California. Many of the boxes are filled at food plants and other businesses, and loaded onto trucks or trains that carry them to Oakland’s bustling waterfront.

The port’s No. 1 export by volume last year was wood pulp, shipped to countries where it is turned into paper, furniture and other products. A total of 145,890 containers headed out to sea.

No. 2 was “edible fruits and nuts,” with 80,756 containers. These include our almonds, walnuts, peaches and other goods. (No word on how demand has been for inedible fruits and nuts.)

Meat and fish were third at 53,747 containers, followed by wine and other beverages at 40,214.

The top category for imports through Oakland was furniture, bedding and lamps, followed by beverage packaging, glass and machinery. Imported wine is not among these leaders, but it is a key part of sourcing for the large wine companies in the Modesto area.

The United States has a large trade deficit overall – we import much more than we export – but it would be worse if it weren’t for agricultural exports.

The USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service projects that they will reach $138.5 billion in the fiscal year starting Oct. 1, down from $139.5 billion in the current year but well above the $108.5 billion in 2010. Agricultural imports into the United States are expected to total $122.5 billion in the next year, leaving a $16 billion gain for the domestic economy.

“Thanks to the resilience of our farmers and ranchers, fiscal years 2009 to 2015 represent the strongest seven years in history for U.S. agricultural trade, with U.S. agricultural product exports totaling more than $911 billion,” Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack said in a news release.

This story was originally published August 28, 2015 at 12:42 PM with the headline "Farm Beat: Much of Modesto area’s bounty sails from Oakland."