Port dispute hurts citrus, almonds

LOS ANGELES – An end to labor strife at West Coast ports should speed up cargo operations, but it may be too late to help California’s drought-weary nut and citrus farmers.

Citrus took the hardest hit. Oranges, many bound for Chinese New Year celebrations, sat decaying on ships, at docks and on the ground as a nine-month labor dispute snarled ports. Fieldworkers, packinghouse employees and truck drivers had their hours cut.

Now that dockworkers and employers have tentatively agreed on a new five-year contract, port officials predict the backlogged cargo should be cleared in six to 12 weeks – well into the season for Valencia oranges and past season’s end for navels.

Losses could reach as high as 50 percent of citrus exports, or $500 million, according to trade groups.

Some shippers were calling in extra workers to pick fruit between Monday’s rain and a predicted weekend storm. Other packinghouses sat idle.

“It’s too early to say when the docks will be up and running,” said Bob Blakely, vice president of California Citrus Mutual. “It’s been really tough. But at least we got some rain.”

The most recent crop of California almonds, the state’s top agricultural export, was harvested shortly before cargo ships started getting delayed in November. The congestion only worsened at the 29 West Coast ports, forcing ships to wait offshore to unload huge containers.

For California’s almond farmers and processors, the severe cargo backlogs have raised fears that foreign buyers could cancel contracts for almonds stuck in storage and buy from other countries.

Losses would factor into next year’s prices, and market-share cuts could affect sales for years to come.

“Next year is scary,” said Jake Wenger, a fourth-generation nut farmer. “And that’s what we said last year.”

Last year’s worry was the drought, which continues amid other looming problems.

“At least we got good prices this year that helps things out,” he said. “But next year, prices are really questionable.”

The high price of almonds, this year about $4 a pound, has transformed the landscape of California’s Central Valley.

Since 1995, Central Valley acreage given to growing almonds, pistachios and walnuts has roughly tripled.

Investment fund managers have gotten in the almond-growing game, buying swaths of land and planting nut trees. Longtime farmers usually plant 70 trees to the acre, knowing the trees will need room as they grow; the newcomers plant 120 trees an acre.