The Port of Oakland has announced an “interagency effort to improve the flow of agricultural exports at the Port.” The new initiative will see yard space provided for empty container return by importers and empty pick up for exporters, plus “restored export ship calls and assistance to export users. The goal is to provide relief to agricultural exporters who are facing shortages of export capacity and skyrocketing logistics costs,” the port said.

The Port will open and operate a 25-acre off-terminal, paved container yard at its Howard terminal, equipped to move containers off chassis and store them for rapid pick-up. “The yard will provide access to equipment and provide faster truck turns without having to wait for in-terminal space. Agriculture exporters will be assisted by federal and state agricultural agencies to use the yard,” Oakland added.

While the site will support export container logistics, it will not be used for transloading agricultural commodities into containers directly. The goal is to facilitate getting containers to exporters by allowing empty pick up for multiple carriers at one location as well as not having to wait in line to get into the terminal. 

Oakland is the main gateway for northern California’s agricultural exports, and under normal circumstances its cargo volume is balanced 50:50 between imports and exports. That situation was upended by the US import surge and port congestion. In the first 11 months of 2021 Oakland handled 976,560 TEU of full import containers and 796,650 TEU of full export containers.

“The situation was the catalyst for a convening of State and Port officials with farm producers and transportation executives to solve a year-old shipping crisis,” the port said. “At stake was the state’s multi-billion-dollar agriculture export industry. The meeting was led by Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development Director Dee Dee Myers, State Transportation Agency Secretary David S Kim and California Department of Food and Agriculture Secretary Karen Ross. Participants included seaport stakeholders within the broad and varied agricultural commodity sectors, freight forwarders, trucking and warehousing operators. The meeting resulted in a list of potential solutions to unclog the supply chain for agriculture exports.”

“We need the shipping companies to immediately restore the export lines from Oakland to Southeast Asia and the Indian subcontinent,” said Port of Oakland Maritime Director Bryan Brandes.

“In the meantime, the port – along with our federal and state partners- is ready to do everything we can to help provide room and relief to help our agricultural customers,” said Port of Oakland Executive Director Danny Wan.

Together with Biden Administration Port Envoy John Porcari, the port, agricultural exporters and shipping lines are looking for short and long term solutions to help exporters. These include addressing equipment availability, port and inland port operations, along with “long-term supply chain strategies and increased investment in critical port infrastructure.”