National Milk Producers Federation and U.S. Dairy Export Council Executive Vice President of Policy and Strategy Jaime Castaneda says indirectly, the Ocean Shipping Reform Act provides a set of new rules the Federal Maritime Commission will follow. “The FMC will have authority to enforce more of the current resolutions they have, allowing for additional ag products to not be left behind. It gives the FMC the authority to issue new rules for service contracts,” says Castaneda. “That’s important, because today, many of the carriers are cancelling contracts and making different arrangements.” The U.S. dairy industry ships cheese in refrigerated containers around the globe and also, whey and other dairy powders. In the last year, Castaneda says the U.S. dairy industry lost $1.5 billion due to the shipping challenges. “It’s for two reasons: increased costs and lost opportunities. These containers used to cost $500/ton per container and now, it costs $5,000/ton per container or more. We calculated a loss of market share due to the problems with carriers leaving ports with empty containers without agricultural products.” Once President Biden signs the bill into law, these changes will go into effect within 45 days.
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