A spokesman for agricultural interests called upon ports to help increase U.S. exports by reducing delays at marine terminals.
Containers can be delayed at marine terminals for a number of reasons, but the end-result is invariably a loss of business opportunities, Peter Friedmann, executive director of the Agriculture Transportation Coalition, told the Pulse of the Port seminar in Long Beach Wednesday.
When West Coast ports were shut down for 10 days in 2002 because of an employer lockout of longshoremen, confectioners in Japan and elsewhere turned to Turkey to replace the almonds that should have come from California. Growers in California still have not recovered the entire market share they lost in 2002, Friedmann said.