West Coast Blank Sails Causing Headaches for Agriculture

LOS ANGELES, CA – Fallout of the global COVID-19 pandemic has reached U.S. ports over the past couple of weeks. While major interruptions have largely missed the Texas Gulf Coast, they have hit the West Coast hard with at least 40 blank sails. A blank sail refers to a ship that is turned away without being unloaded or restocked. So far, the Port of Houston has had only six blank sails in 2020. Jane Wells with CNBC says that there are containers with U.S. ag products that are just sitting on the docks in California. The Ports of Los Angeles, Long Beach, and Oakland make up the third-largest modal in the world and she explains that with so many empty containers on the docks, its backed up everything. On Tuesday, shipping giant Maersk is sending their three largest ships ever to call in the Western Hemisphere to pick up the empty containers, but there’s still no indication of what will happen to those containing ag products. According to Lloyd’s List, Cargill’s ocean transportation unit has so far not experienced any major grain disruptions as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.