Peter Friedmann, executive director of the Agriculture Transportation Coalition said April 7 that agriculture exporters “have been dramatically injured” by the closure of marine terminals at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach because of action by dock workers in the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU).

The lack of a West Coast labor contract between the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) and the Pacific Maritime Association (PMA) could be “dangerous” and “permanent,” he warned.

Friedmann said exporters had 10 trucks turned away Friday, April 7, and were compelled to store the containers in a yard close to the port, at a cost of $2,000 per container, giving a total of $20,000. 

Read more: LA, Long Beach Port Terminals Reopen as Dockworkers Return

“This has not only eliminated our profit from this international sale, it turned it into a substantial loss; but we have to keep it moving, because the product is loaded, there’s no place to put it, or use it, and if we don’t deliver, we lose the foreign customer, perhaps permanently,” said Friedmann.

“This highly damaging experience is being repeated for thousands of containers, as all agriculture exporters are scrambling to survive this disruption. The example above is significant, but is the tip of the iceberg; it does not capture the costs of the current terminal closures for many other agriculture exporters.”

Friedmann went on, “There is nothing we produce in agriculture or forest products here in the United States that cannot be sourced somewhere else in the world. If we cannot deliver affordably and dependably, our foreign customers will find other sources.”