b'14American Journal of Transportation ajot.comWest Coast perishable exports Covid disrupts Northwest exports T emperaTure -C onTrolledBy Tad Thompson, AJOT l ogisTiCsT ri -a nnualForatleastnowintheWashingtonshipperssea-COVID Era, North Americanport of choice does depend exportersarehavingadif- onthedestination.For ficult time scheduling oceantheLatinAmericanmarket transportation to the Far East.Washingtonapplesare Industry sources indicatetrucked to Long Beach.The that shipping lines are thriv- fruit rides the roads to Flor-ingwithhugeAsiancargoida to fill Caribbean demand. volumes boundforthe U.S.Consolidatedloadsaresig-West Coast.But North Amer- nificantinshippingtothe ican export trade is secondaryCaribbean islands.and is often a step-child forRegarding export destina-ocean cargo services. tionsforWashingtonapples, MelanieStambaugh,ofLyonssaidNorthAmeri-theNorthwestSeaportAlli- canneighbors,Mexicoand ance,whichrepresentstheCanada, respectively, rank one ports of Seattle and Tacoma,andtwo.Lastseasonthese said her groups imports arewerefollowedbyTaiwan, up25%thisyear.In AprilIndia, Vietnam and Indonesia. exportsfromSeattleandOur industry ships to over 60 Tacoma were down 11%. (EXPORTScontinued on Because of willingness topage 23)pay high rates, goods imported to Washington State from the FarEast,shippinglinesare profiting nicely.As a result, for exporters, vessel schedules have been unreliable. Rebecca Lyons, the inter-national marketing director of theWashington AppleCom-mittee said that yes, we are hearingfromhergrower-membersofchallengesin gettingspaceonboardcon-tainer ships.A container may be stuffed and waiting at the port, and then get rolled onto a different vessel with a delayed arrival.This is very challeng-ing for our export customers as they do not know when to expectarrivals,andinsome marketsthereareveryspe-cific holiday periods that are high demand.If the contain-ers reach them after the festive period, theyve lost sales, and thenhaveproductthattakes longer to move in the market.Tohelpthatsituation, Stambaughindicatedthat SeattleandTacomaare trying to incentivize exports. The ports are finding unused dockwarehousesthatcan hold perishable products until a shipping opportunity arises. Ifexportershaveaplaceto hold their products it allevi-atestheextratransportation cost of running back and forth between their own warehouse and the port.Stambaugh indicated: We arethesecondlargestrefrig-eratedgatewayintheU.S. largely because of handling a widevarietyofU.S.agricul-turalproducts.WhileWash-ingtonapplesareiconic,the seaportsalsohandleexports of meat, pears, potatoes, dried legumes,pork,fish,poul-try,eggs,plantsandflowers andevenfreshcherries.(See related story for positive devel-opments that will build agricul-tural exports for the Northwest Shipping Alliance.)According to Lyons, Seat-tleand Tacomaarethepri-maryportsforWashington applesexports.Ofcourse,'