Port Closures Could Leave California Rice Farmers Taking Big Hit
WEST SACRAMENTO (CBS13) — Port problems are leading to issues for area farmers, specifically those who grow rice.
Over the weekend, 30 ports on the West Coast, including the port of West Sacramento, shut down. They all reopened on Monday, but workers warned they could stop again at any time.
Rice grown in the valley is shipped from West Sacramento and Oakland to countries in the south Pacific. It should take one week to get the billion-dollar product from the valley onto the waters of the Pacific, but instead it's taking two months.
The Sacramento Valley grows nearly all of the rice in the state, and there's big money in shipping it overseas, but right now, the $5 billion a year product is moving at a snail's pace out of the ports.
Brandon Harder with the Farmers Rice Cooperative, a company that helps farmers get their rice to market, says they have product ready to roll, but can't get it out due to port delays and shutdowns.
"We pride ourselves on getting it there on time, and delivering on those promises," he said. "If we can't do that, credibility declines and folks are going to find someone who can deliver on time."
For months, shipping has slowed at West Coast ports as dock workers and terminal operators argue over contract terms.
"It's like a small dam that backs up a big river to make a lake. That's exactly what's happening right now," said Tim Johnson with the California Rice Commission.
Johnson says the port problems mean containers filled with rice are sitting on docks. He says each day the metal containers sit idle, they may have to pay extra fees. Even if the labor dispute were to end on Monday, it would take several months before operations returned to normal.
Already, he thinks significant damage has been done to California agriculture.
"I expect that we're certainly talking about hundreds of millions of dollars, for all of agriculture, as we stand here today," he said.
The last port shutdown was in 2002, and was a $15 billion economic loss for the United States. Then-president George W. Bush invoked the Taft-Hartley Act, stopping the lockout of longshoremen and forcing the ports to open.
