07/25/08 Shipping Issues Part 3

Shipping Issues, Part 3. I'm Greg Martin with today's Fruit Grower Report. TSA, the security agency at airports is taking their job seriously, as well they should. But that could mean trouble for produce exports. In a few short years, 100% of all containers will need to be cleared before being loaded into commercial jets. According to Mark Powers, vice president of the NW Horticulture Council, plenty of exported product flies commercial. POWERS: For our industry we're estimating from the 2007 season which was a fairly large season about 1.3 million cartons would be going on passenger airplanes. There are a number of issues that are holding the scanning process up including manpower but another key issue according to Powers is technology. POWERS: You've got phytosanitary constraints with Japan and some other countries where you can't really conduct physical screening of these cartons. You can't open them up once they're sealed. There isn't an ability right now to screen a pallet so that's a real problem. Bottom line is the screening process will take more time and more money. POWERS: There definitely will be extra costs. Frankly at this point I don't see any way around it. Unless some solutions are found there may be cases where fruit doesn't make its target airplane and might have to be brought back into the freight forwarder or in some cases back to the shipper where they've got cold storage. At this point there has not been any additional funds appropriated for the screening process, either manpower or technology. That's today's Fruit Grower Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.