Port of Oakland Operation Resumes: Will Exports Make It Out on Time?
Protesters and picketing lines halted operation at the third-busiest port on the U.S. west coast, the Port of Oakland, for nearly a week. Work has resumed, but some in the meat industry fear port congestion and backlogs will continue to cause problems with exports.
As previous congestion at ports has seen progress, this event “is going to make the issue much, much worse,” Halstrom adds.
Japan, Korea, China and Taiwan are large markets for red meat exports shipping out of the Port of Oakland. Specifically for Japan, nearly 66% of beef exports and 70% of pork exports use this port.
These shipping delays might cause a shift from chilled product to frozen, out of necessity.
“Some of the highest margin business is the chilled product, never frozen, it's chilled, so you're very time sensitive on the shelf life. So what's going to happen is if this cargo cannot ship on time, a lot of this cargo is going to have to be frozen down which means prices will plummet,” Halstrom says.
Again, considering the Japan market, with over $4 billion of exports sold in 2021, the country is the U.S.’s number one value destination, with high value, chilled product being a value-added opportunity to help reach these totals.
As of Monday, July 25, the Port of Oakland has fully resumed operations, and protests have been moved to “free speech zones” that will not interfere with port operations. However, backlogs of inventory will likely take several days to move.
