The Worrying State of the Supply Chain
Over the past few years, supply chain issues have plagued much of the world as COVID-19 shutdowns and subsequent restarts have put extraordinary stress on the entire system, writes Eric Sfiligoj at CropLife. Indeed, back in April, many U.S. ag retailers started warning their grower-customers about the potential short supplies of their favorite early season products.
In acknowledge of this ongoing issue, the Mid America CropLife Association featured a panel of three speakers from across the agricultural landscape at its virtual annual meeting in mid-September discussing the state of the supply chain. As one of them put it bluntly: “The COVID-19 pandemic turned our businesses upside down, and we are still trying to figure out how to deal with all of this. How can the industry address these, and when will things get back to what we knew in the past?”
Speaking first was Spencer Vance, North American President for Albaugh, LLC. Vance discussed at length the situation currently facing all suppliers and manufacturers when it comes to ocean freight. “Right now, there are massive shortages,” he said. “When COVID first hit, everything shut down, and it’s taking a long time to get shipping containers, ships, and port operations back up and running again. Naturally, this has caused a massive increase in the costs to get a shipping container anywhere in the world.”
Furthermore, just off the coast of the Long Beach port, there are numerous ships currently waiting to dock and be unloaded as short-handed crews try to keep pace. “Usually, there are between 20 and 40 ships waiting to unload at any time, which is normal,” said Vance. “Right now, in mid-September, there are more than 70 ships anchored off the coast, waiting to unload. And with 400 more ships getting ready to sail to the West Coast from Asian ports over the next 90 to 100 days, things likely won’t get any better for quite a while longer.”
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