Hanjin Pulls Out of Portland Port

More bad news last week on top of the increasingly difficult port labor dispute, South Korean carrier Hanjin announced it would be pulling out of the Portland port in March. They had provided 80 percent of the container movement from the Port of Portland to Asia. Oregon farmer and Agvocate Marie Bowers Stagg shares what this will mean for her operation.
Stagg: “So it is going to have significant impact. I know on our farm at least 40 percent of our grass seed goes to Asia. I know that we have seed right now sitting in the warehouse that is suppose to be on container heading to the ports but they haven’t even left our warehouse yet because you can’t get containers, you can’t people to work. 100 percent of our straw goes to Asia as well. But those are shipped by brokers that buy our straw. It will be interesting see how the impact goes to Oregon farmers because everything is waving into each other as the Oregon Legislature wants to have a low carbon fuel standard there is all kind of estimates but it is going to raise gas prices no doubt — whether it is 4 cents a gallon or $1.06 per gallon — nobody knows. So that will go into play cuz we are now going to have to find another port to use if we using Hanjin to get our seed to Asia. And that is an increase in trucking cost. And who know if we even have any markets because right now customers are getting angry that they aren’t getting their product on time.”
According to a recent Journal of Commerce article, Hanjin has generated $12 million in state and local taxes and supported 35 percent of upriver barge traffic.