The Department of Agriculture announced recently plans to increase capacity for exporting chilled and frozen agricultural commodities at the port of Houston and to expand a partnership aimed at expediting agricultural exports at the ports of Seattle and Tacoma.
USDA states that while foreign sales of U.S. poultry, beef, and pork through the port of Houston totaled a half-billion dollars in 2021, millions in sales are at risk due to the limited availability of chassis to move and position refrigerated shipping containers while waiting for vessels to arrive. Agricultural producers have expressed concerns about these limitations, especially as challenges at West Coast ports have shifted some volume to Gulf Coast and East Coast ports. USDA will therefore cover 50 percent of the cost of obtaining and leasing chassis at this port during the first year of its five-year lease of an additional 1,060 chassis, which will ensure that the port is able to fully utilize its current capacity for reefers and avoid the risk of turning away or delaying exports.
USDA has also announced an expansion of its partnership with the Northwest Seaport Alliance to combat a decline in agricultural commodity exports. Specifically, an existing 16-acre near-dock “pop up” site in Tacoma will be used to accept either dry agricultural or reefer containers for temporary storage so containers can more quickly be loaded on ships at the export terminals. USDA will provide payments of $200 per dry container and $400 per reefer to help cover the additional logistical costs of moving the containers twice, first to the pre-position site and then to the terminal loading the vessel, along with the cost of temporary storage.
Copyright © 2024 Sandler, Travis & Rosenberg, P.A.; WorldTrade Interactive, Inc. All rights reserved.