Following the COVID-19 lockdown and the negative impacts that has brought upon the industries, food shipments around the global are facing rough times. According to Bloomberg, the port backups that have ceased food trade operations are getting worse.
In fact, officials at a major port for rice trade in Philippines told Bloomberg that the terminal was about to shut down as thousands of shipping containers pile up because lockdown measures are making them harder to clear.
With several ports slowing shipments, Africa which is heavily dependent on food imports noted that there aren’t enough workers showing up to support unload cargoes.
As coronavirus disruptions along the way causing heavy delays, countries such as the US are facing negative impacts within transportation of goods as well.
Moreover, Canada is dealing with COVID-19 affects, after some shipping routes were canceled by carriers because of lower demand for manufactured goods.
“Food exporters are being forced to wait longer for incoming shipments to be able to empty and refill vessels with their goods. That’s the case in Europe, where operations are running more or less normally, but the container squeeze is causing delays”…said to Bloomberg, Philippe Binard, general delegate of Freshfel Europe, a produce association.
Although there are some parts that have already marked an improve. Specifically, China has passed the worst of its problems. The thousands containers of frozen pork, chicken and beef that were piling up at major ports after transport disruptions and labor shortages which slowed operations, are now continuing as normal.
At the same time, the world’s top exporter of soybeans, beef, coffee and sugar, Brazil, keeps its food trade operations at a normal pace.
Overall, in light of the situation the heads of the World Trade Organization (WTO), the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Health Organization (WHO) called governments to minimize the impact of COVID-19 related border restrictions on trade in food.
