Shipping to more than 100 countries, exporting over $8 billion of pork products in 2021 and adding $63 of value to each hog marketed, U.S. pork exports significantly impact the industry, says a recent National Pork Producers Council (NPPC) press release.
At the same time, the Agriculture Transportation Coalition estimates that 22% of U.S. agricultural exports in 2021 were not delivered because of unreasonable shipping practices, the release notes.
The Ocean Shipping Reform Act of 2022 (OSRA) was signed into law June 16 to address challenges at the ports, including aging infrastructure and shipping issues leading to excessive detention, demurrage fees and declined or canceled shipments, the release explains.
The bipartisan bill was put forth at the end of 2021 with the goal of “trying to curb some of the actions by the shipping industry that we had seen play out over the pandemic where they were carrying empty containers in lieu of U.S. exported products,” says Travis Arp, U.S. Meat Export Federation (USMEF) assistant vice president of export services.
USMEF’s president and CEO, Dan Halstrom describes the timeliness of the bill.
“In these times of rising input costs, it has never been more important to maximize the value of our agricultural products, and the best way to do that is to ensure access to the international marketplace. This legislation takes important steps forward in improving the shipping services available to U.S. exporters,” says Halstrom.
The legislation also receives praises from the NPPC’s chief executive officer, Bryan Humphreys.
“NPPC commends President Biden for signing and Senators Amy Klobuchar and John Thune and Representatives John Garamendi and Dusty Johnson for their sponsorship of and leadership on the OSRA. I am honored to represent NPPC and America’s 60,000 pork producers to see this important legislation signed into law,” Humphreys says.
However, Arp warns that the bill will need shipping company buy-in.
“The shipping companies really do need to respond to this. The legislation itself is not going to fundamentally change how they have to operate. But again, I think it’s a signal to them that the commercial practices that they’ve been enacting are discriminatory towards U.S. exporters, and we need them to step up and understand that they need to prioritize U.S. exports,” Arp explains.
