Meat exporters see ‘dire’ container shortage

American meat exporters are struggling with a “dire” shortage of shipping containers that could slow resurgent sales to Asia and other overseas markets, the top executive of the U.S. Meat Export Federation said Thursday.

“As we are starting to see our exports ramp up we are obviously experiencing a shortage of containers,” Philip M. Seng, the federation’s president and CEO, said in a conference call with reporters.

He said the shortages are less severe than they were two years ago but remain a problem, particularly in trans-Pacific trade. “There is a shortage now. We’re concerned that it could get worse … Hopefully it won’t retard sales too much,” Seng said.

Container availability is a longstanding issue for exporters of meat and other agricultural products. Carriers size their trans-Pacific services to handle demand for import containers, which exceed exports by nearly 2-to-1 and generate higher average revenue. Export boxes also tend to be heavier, so fewer can be loaded on a ship.

U.S. Department of Agriculture statistics show through March, beef exports were up 11 percent in volume while pork was down 4 percent and lamb was up 20 percent. “I think we’ve done very well in the current economic environment,” Seng said.

He said exporters’ competitive position is hurt by the failure of the U.S. to conclude trade agreements with key countries such as Korea, Colombia and Panama. “If we don’t have these signed … it hurts all of our industry,” he said. (Joseph Bonney, The Journal of Commerce)

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