Perishables
GRAIN PAIN As with many other sectors, transportation disruptions have hit the perishables industry in 2022. The American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF) released its mid-year status update on transportation systems in the United States—and, as you might expect, the numbers are troublesome. • Total grain rail cars loaded and billed dipped slightly, from 381,000 cars in Q1 to 373,000 cars in Q2. • BNSF and Union Pacific (UP), which processed 64% of all grain rail cars in Q2, shipped 9% and 14% fewer grain rail cars than the same period last year, respectively. • Between Q2 2021 and Q2 2022, the number of cumulative unfilled orders—the number of cars a shipper (such as a grain elevator) ordered but did not receive—jumped from 62,000 to 204,000, a 231% increase. Year-over-year, BNSF saw a jump of over 110,000 cumulative unfilled orders (+546%) and UP saw an increase of 33,000 (+154%). Comparing Q1 2022 and Q2 2022, there has been a 49% (66,000) increase in cumulative unfilled grain car orders one or more days overdue. • Of the 204,000 cumulative unfilled grain car orders one or more days overdue, nearly 70% (or 140,000) were also 11 or more days overdue—a 348% increase from the second quarter last year and an 82% increase from last quarter. • In Q1, bidders faced a nearly 500% increase in secondary railcar auction bids from the prior four-year average (between BNSF and UP). • On what the AFBF calls “a marginally higher note,” secondary market bids for shuttle service have cooled for deliveries to be made in August from highs for deliveries made in April. “Rates remain volatile and well above average,” the AFBF reports. “Shippers with flexibility in moving product may participate in the secondary market to take advantage of high bids for existing contracts, further contributing to delivery uncertainty.”
Tracking fresh produce shipments is becoming more eco-friendly. Consentio, a digital trading platform with customers across Europe and North America, is adding sustainability data to its offering. This allows produce traders to monitor carbon dioxide and water consumption data in their transactions. Consentio’s platform follows fresh produce transactions from grower to distributor to retailer. The new sustainability data, which will be displayed along with price and availability, comes from accredited government sources, the company says. More sustainability features are on the way, “such as details of the grower and the produce journey from farm to fork,” CEO and co-founder Benoit Vandevivere told Perishable News . “The entire world of food production and supply is changing rapidly,” he said. “Consumers want to know more about the food they eat, where it was produced and when, what the carbon impact has been during the food production, and much more. “Retailers are now looking for suppliers who can provide true and veri able provenance with transparent supply chains, meaning some food producers are nding it harder to gain shelf space,” Vandevivere notes. “It is our aim to place Consentio at the heart of this revolution, offering provable, transaction-based, transparent supply chains, accessible from all technologies.” SUSTAINABILITY DATA GOES DIGITAL
Cumulative number of weekly grain car orders in the second quarter from 2018 to 2022 that were one or more days overdue.
250,000 200,000 150,000 100,000 50,000 0
BNSF
CN
CP
CSX
KCS
NS
UP
Q2 2017
Q2 2018
Q2 2019
Q2 2020
Q2 2021
Q2 2022
Source: American Farm Bureau Federation
12 Inbound Logistics • August 2022
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