US port strike disrupts hamburger supplies

Dockworkers striking at US East Coast and Gulf Coast ports are preventing imports of beef that restaurants and retailers increasingly rely on to make hamburgers due to limited domestic supplies, Reuters reported, citing traders and industry members. The labor strike blocks everything from shipments of automobiles to containers filled with Guatemalan bananas and Italian wine from loadingor unloading at dozens of ports from Maine to Texas. Along with beef, imports of seafood and US exports of chicken are being disrupted. Even short-term disruptions to shipments could snarl the broader US food supply chain, according to experts and food importers. If the strike stretches out, the result will be either shortages of some food products, price inflation or both, they said. More than 50 container ships were already anchored or loitering off dozens of East Coast and Gulf ports as of early Wednesday, compared to just three on Sunday before the strike, according to Reuters shipping data and ...