A joint venture among agricultural industry groups and transportation carriers is helping to overcome logistical challenges in the food supply chain. President and CEO of the Almond Alliance of California, Aubrey Bettencourt said they are having success forging a less-than-conventional path for exporting agricultural goods.
“Industry has embraced the multi-module/multi-port scenario that we’ve set up with our tremendous partners from the ports all across the country, to rail, to trucks, to the carriers globally as well,” Bettencourt noted. “We just recently partnered with Hapag-Lloyd on the transcontinental train and so now we’re looking at rail options into Norfolk, New Jersey, Savannah, and to Houston.”
Logistical challenges have been preventing a variety of products from getting to their destinations at the intended time. The problem has been especially difficult for the agricultural industry. Supply chain logjams forced industry members to evaluate alternative possibilities to get ag products to foreign markets. Bettencourt said they have found it easier to get products to the Middle East when shipping from the East Coast versus using the ports of Los Angeles or Oakland.
While largely a beneficial endeavor, Bettencourt said they are running into some interesting circumstances. Some buyers are not being clear with instructions, so some almond shipments are sitting with sellers being expected to warehouse product. However, the venture is an overall success and could serve as a model moving forward.
“This is the future and now we can start drilling in on some of the other issues that need to free up equipment and some other problems. So, we continue to work with the FMC, continue to work with USDA, Department of Transportation, and our partners at CDFA and GoBiz on the state level as well,” Bettencourt explained. “So, it’s been a wonderful experience in the sense of industry solving problems for itself through good partnerships and new partnerships.”
