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Container Issues Remain A Concern For Pulse Sector

There's been a growing concern around the containerized supply chain for the agriculture sector.

Greg Northey, the Director of Industry Relations with Pulse Canada, says it all sort of began or at least the most acute problems we're seeing began with the early pandemic lockdowns and even before that when COVID first hit China and factories were shutting down.

He says with that we saw the lockdowns, plus the factory shutdowns, and world trade dropped - an unprecedented drop.

Northey says as a result shipping lines started to cancel out of sailings, then when things started to open up there was an explosion of demand for certain goods which tied up containers.

"It was around that time where container prices would have gone for people wanting to ship, TVs from China to North America. Usually you would have paid, around $10,000 a container or around there, and they went to almost $30,000 per container. So, you know, there was just this incredible demand at that point. And that fall, the pulse sector was just really unable to access empty containers, they just weren't available for use."

He says now there's just not the service for export containers, as shipping lines have deprioritized exports and raised costs.

"To the point now, where containers are around, but they're at really incredible prices. And even if you're willing to pay it, you get your product loaded in a container. You won't necessarily get on the ship, because they're just deprioritized. So they'll just sit around for months and months on end, waiting to get on the ship, you'll get rolled and rolled and rolled."

Northey notes there's just not the service now for export containers, which is an issue for the Pulse sector as every year about 45 per cent of Canadian pulses are exported in containers.

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