It has been almost a month since President Biden signed the Ocean Shipping Reform Act into law. Many ag groups supported this bill because it was designed to help logjams at ports, ease supply chain issues, and increase transparency and accountability.
While the ink hasn?t had a whole lot of time to dry on this legislation, the National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF) says that changes aren?t happening quickly enough, or even at all. Trade Manager Tony Rice said that the abuses this legislation was supposed to put a stop to, are continuing at almost status quo.
Rice adds that there has been little to no improvement in transparency and too many empty containers are still going back to Asia while American goods wait to ship.
The dairy industry has lost somewhere around $1.5 billion in higher costs, lost sales, and reduced value.
While this is going on, two of our biggest competitors for the dairy market, New Zealand and the EU, are falling behind in meeting demand around the world. The NMPF wants to be able to capitalize on this opportunity, but the persistence of shipping problems is not helping.
