Saturday, March 27, 2021

Shipping rates soaring

The cost of shipping cargo has tripled and in some cases quadrupled, affecting both agriculture exports and farm-supply inputs.

“We deal with a lot of farm supplies and agriculture, agricultural parts as well,” said Anthony Jones pf Sheldon, Missouri, where he works for Jones Twine and Net Wrap. “We're seeing shipping rates, double, triple, even quadruple in some areas.”

That’s combined with shortages of some polymers used to make plastics and he said “it's possibly also going to cause shortages. So, it's definitely one of those things that if you can be proactive and be able to figure out what you need right now. That's going to be the best decision."

It’s difficult to find online information about ocean freight rates for grain, but Canada’s two main railroad companies have said grain-hauling rates will increase by about 12 per cent this year.