As industrial action continues to interrupt operations at ports along the US West Coast, California’s fresh produce industry is counting the costs.
Pat Andersen, president and CFO of Tehama County-based walnut packer-exporter Andersen and Sons Shelling, said trucking companies had now doubled their port-congestion surcharges to US$300. This is on top of the standard US$1000 delivery fee.
Andersen told Californian newspaper AgAlert that his company has now resorted to working nights and weekends so that trucks carrying his consignments could arrive at the front of the long queue when the ports opened. This practice incurs significant increases in overtime and penalty rate costs for employees.
The strain the labour dispute has caused has prompted Anderson to shift focus to the domestic market. 'I have to move a certain amount of product every day so I can get paid, so I can turn around and pay my growers,' he told AgAlert. 'If I can't ship as much product out because of the slowdown at the port, then that means I don't get as much money in, which means I can't pay my growers on time.”
