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US farm exports increase 18pc from bulk to container

Jun 19, 2009 Trade

Since the middle of 2007 the move of agricultural exports westbound from bulk to container have increased by 18 per cent compared to last year because of a lack of capacity and rising freight rates.

Speaking at a annual conference for agriculture in San Francisco, the BSNF railway vice president Fred Malesa spoke of the increase in US wheat, soybean and corn exports to Asia, which accounts for 77 per cent of the total against a 29 per cent decline in non-agricultural cargo.

"I don't think this is going away. It has found value in the marketplace," said BNSF vice president John Miller, responsible for agricultural marketing, in a Journal of Commerce report.

Despite a few large exporters moving back to bulk those small and medium sized grain importers in Asian countries including Taiwan will remain with container vessels, he said.

But transport delays are prevalent in a lack of containers to move grain from silos in the Midwest to west coast ports and with rail rates up the demand is bottle-necking.

Shippers are challenging the up to 40 per cent increases in rail rates that have occurred in the last two years, which act as a brake on agricultural exports, according to Hayden Swofford, of the Pacific Northwest Asia Shippers Association.

The increase has been denied because it does not take into account bunker fuel surcharges or BNSF moves to expand intermodal services further such as its recent research into new services in unexploited areas like North Dakota, said Mr Malesa, defending BNSF as being anything but a "fair weather friend" to farmers.

(Source: News and Date)

 

 
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