A toxic cocktail of COVID-19 fallout, creaking US port infrastructure and extended shipping and port clearance times is forcing seafood companies to increase inventories, abandon "just-in-time" inventory management systems and offer shorter term contracts to their customers.
Add in restrictive labor practices, labor shortages and a shortage of cold storage capacity and you have the recipe for an ongoing logistics headache, said delegates at the recent National Fisheries Institute (NFI) Global Seafood Market Conference in Palm Springs last month.
Over the past 20 years, cargo volumes passing through ports has increased around fourfold, leaving infrastructure unable to handle the increased levels.
