What Ports Dispute Problems Means for International Customers

The labor disputes at the the ports up and down the West Coast have been felt dramatically by the traders, truckers and ag producers who ship their product internationally. Now we are hearing of French Fry shortages in Japan. Currently McDonalds is rationing its fries by selling only small servings of fries. Japan is one of the largest customers of U.S. frozen fries.

United States Potato Board Chief Marketing Officer John Toaspern says that international customers are running out of U.S. frozen potato product because customers have a set ordering schedule throughout the year that has been disrupted by the labor disputes.

Toeaspern: “And now those products are not arriving or they are arriving a month later than they were suppose to. In the interim, they are running out of products and as you have seen in some cases, they are rationing what they are able to sell to consumers because they don’t have it. In many other cases, what they have they done is switch to products from other sources — from Canada or from the European Union — where they can get it. Now, obviously there is a still a delay for that to happen but that is happening quite a bit. That is going to have a huge impact to U.S. producers because now these places are buying from someone else: Will they switch back? When will they switch back? How will they switch back? Certainly from the U.S. producers’ prospective — these sales are lost forever.”