America’s new export problem: 12.1 million shipping containers left biggest U.S. ports empty
For 20 years, Greg Jackson has exported hay and grass grown in California’s Imperial Valley to places like China, where an increasing number of dairy farms rely on American alfalfa and other forage crops that are in short supply locally. As the executive vice president for sales at Border Valley Trading in Brawley, Calif., Jackson has arranged for shipping containers to ferry hay from the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach across the Pacific Ocean.
But this year, Jackson has found it much more difficult to get American hay loaded into shipping containers bound for Asia. The containers, which arrive at the California ports stuffed with iPhones and other manufactured goods, are increasingly being sent back empty. Jackson estimates that his company, which ships around 8,000 40-foot containers a year, has seen volumes fall by 15% to 20% in recent months as a result of canceled bookings.
@TransAmericanFriendship
