Container crisis affects global food trade

Food accumulates in the wrong places, as ships have been transporting empty containers. By Bloomberg With global competition for shipping containers, Thailand cannot ship rice, Canada accumulates peas and India cannot export its mountain of sugar. Transporting empty boxes back to China has become so profitable that even some U.S. soy carriers have to contend for containers to supply hungry Asian buyers. "People are not getting products where they need them," said Steve Kranig, director of logistics for IM-EX Global, a carrier that ships cargo such as rice, bananas and so-called dumplings from Asia to the United States. “One of my customers sends 8 to 10 containers of rice every week from Thailand to Los Angeles. But you can only ship 2 to 3 containers a week now. ” The central problem is that China, which recovered faster from the Covid-19 pandemic, has accelerated its export-focused economy and is paying huge premiums for containers, which makes it much more profitable to send ...