Oct 31, 2012

Sandy disrupting shippers

As the Northeast cleans up from the assault by Hurricane Sandy, the food industry is dealing with the disruptions in transportation the storm has caused.

Ken Gilliland, director of international trade and transportation for Western Growers, told his organization on Oct. 30 that the storm has already “tightened supply conditions and elevated rates.”

Gilliland added that Western’s transportation team is geared up to deal with “challenging conditions for at least the next 7-10 days.”

According to Western Growers, these conditions include closed roads, delays at receivers due to power outages, slowdown in loading capacity and higher rates due to limited available capacity.

“You can potentially expect a ripple effect similar to conditions in a holiday market where pricing and capacity can be affected for up to two weeks after the event,” said Gilliland.