Supply chain delays disrupt California agriculture exports

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Amid an historic drought posing threats to future harvests, California farmers now say they have no way to export the crops they do have because of a kink in the global supply chain.

It is a supply chain blunder that has left container ships lined up off the Southern California coast with nowhere to deliver their goods.

The backlog of ships entering U.S. waters also means there are fewer making the trek back across the Pacific Ocean, leaving the farmers in one of the nation’s most important agriculture regions with nowhere to send their products.

California is the nation’s only supplier of tree nuts — almonds, walnuts and pistachios. Most of them are sold to other countries, totaling more than $8.1 billion in exports in 2019, according to the California Department of Food and Agriculture.

But last month, more than 80% of scheduled shipments were canceled. Processors have resorted to paying much more to ship their products to other ports, sending pistachios and walnuts by train to Texas and Maryland.

One reason for the shortage of ships is the intense demand for products has driven shipping prices so high that many ocean carriers simply hurry back to Asia once they leave Southern California, bypassing the smaller port in Oakland where most of the state’s tree nuts are shipped.