The National Milk Producers Federation, alongside nearly 80 other associations in the industry, are looking to the Biden administration to take action to mitigate what many are calling a crisis at the west coast ports.
NMPF Vice President of Policy, Jaime Castaneda, says the backups are not hurting only western producers, but dairy farmers across the county; “That is actually holding up the amount of product that we can export overseas therefore that actually impacts the price of every single producer in the country.”
He noted that currently 70 percent of cargo containers leaving the west coast are empty, which he said is a record. Castaneda says the recently penned letter requests the Biden administration increase the hours of operation at ports up and down the west coast.
“Not just Long Beach, but Oakland, Seattle, Tacoma. Even the workers are prepared to work longer hours, we just need those gates to remain open.” Castaneda added because of the backlog a west coast ports, American dairy exporters have lost $300 million in the first half of the year.
