Miller Magazine Issue: 145 January 2022

53 COVER STORY MILLER / january 2022 The pandemic has destabilized the global container freight supply chain, and delayed shipments and rapidly rising freight rates are putting intense pressure on grain exporters and importers. Industry experts believe the problems could persist as the finely calibrated network of world trade, already weakened by months of shipping backlogs, labor shortages and geopolitical tensions, re- mains discombobulated. Grain is transported by sea, road and rail, and re- cent challenges related to the pandemic have made clear just how reliant the food supply chain is upon the transport sector. Shipping accounts for the movement of at least 90% of goods around the world and the cost of transporting things by sea has rocketed in the past year. Higher demand for goods combined with the lingering effects of pandemic restrictions saw ocean shipping costs skyrocket for much of 2021. The Drewry world container index measuring the cost of moving a 40ft container is 170% higher than it was a year ago. The price on some particularly in-demand routes such as Shanghai to Rotterdam has increased by almost 200%; in the case of the Dutch port to New York, the cost has risen by 212%. China’s ‘zero-COVID’ policy create further shipping strains as pandemic measures continued to affect its ports, many of which are among the world’s busiest. The cost of sending a container from China to the United States reached a record high of more than $20,000. As it is uncertain the end of the pandemic, COVID-19 continues to threaten the global food supply chain with the disruption on the economic sectors, extreme con- straint in the access of food, shortage of farm labor, fear of moving from one place to another, among other con- straints. Although many countries have adopted policies to reduce the impacts of the pandemic on the perfor- mance of the food supply chain, significant problems still exist. The current supply chain crisis may be temporary, but volatility could well become a permanent feature of global trade as climate change and other disruptions take hold. Digital transformation is part of the answer, but it’s even more important that we bring about a revolution in the way we think of international trade.