According to an article from AP News, farmers in California are having difficulties exporting their products due to the shipping crisis. As delays and backlogs at Californian ports worsen, farmers in one of the most important agricultural states are left with nowhere to send their goods. Roger Isom, President of the Western Agricultural Processors Association said that last month, over 80% of the scheduled shipments had been canceled and many processors were left with the only one option, to ship their products to other less congested ports around the country, which can be extremely costly.
Apart from the growing stress on the food supply chain, some are fearing another problem in the near future: a maritime labor shortage. Throughout the pandemic, maritime workers have been some of the most affected, oftentimes having to spend extended times at sea, in some cases well over one year, due to restrictions, lockdowns, and other pandemic-related problems. Moreover, many maritime workers have reported declining mental and physical health, limited access to medical care, and growing tension among crew members, all leading some industry professionals to believe that it will be more difficult to hire workers in the future.
In a glimpse of better news, Drewry announced that their World Container Index saw prices fall by 4.9% this past week. Although this is a significant decrease, the index still remains 252% higher than one year ago. According to their spot freight rates across eight major East-West routes, rates for Shanghai to Los Angeles decreased 10%. The next largest drop was from Shanghai to New York at 7%, followed by Shanghai to Genoa at 3%. Shanghai to Rotterdam rates was 2% lower than the previous week. Rotterdam to New York, and Los Angeles to Shanghai both decreased week over week 1%, and Rotterdam to Shanghai and New York to Rotterdam remained unchanged.