KOREA: Due to the negotiations going on between port workers on the West Coast longshoremen have begun to stage slowdowns at many ports on the West Coast.
“We haven’t been able to keep up with removing containers ahead of the new containers that are coming in,” said Steve Getzug, spokesman for the Pacific Maritime Association, “so it’s created quite a backlog. We’ve got containers that are sitting for days, sometimes weeks, before they can be loaded onto trucks.”
Most of our food is shipped in from the West Coast, so local food suppliers are keeping an eye on the negotiations, which now include a mediator.
There are four commissaries on Oahu: Marine Corps Base Hawaii in Kaneohe, Schofield Barracks, Hickam Air Force Base and Pearl Harbor.
The Pearl Harbor Commissary is second among commissaries in the world when it comes to sales. Managers are keeping a close eye on the items with a short shelf life, like yogurt, cottage cheese, fruits and vegetables.
“Right now, we’re in good shape in our stores,” said Bruce Graf, Pacific area manager for the Defense Commissary Agency, which covers Korea, Japan, Okinawa, Guam and Hawaii. “We have almost everything they will need. I don’t see that changing in the near future and if it does, we’ll be all over it.”
While there’s no need to panic, as a precaution, the military will do for Hawaii what it is already doing in the rest of the Pacific: contracting commercial airliners to fly in perishable items from the mainland. The military says there will be no price hikes for items flown into Honolulu.
The commissaries rely on Armstrong Produce for fruits and vegetables. In fact, the military is the company’s largest customer.
Armstrong says it started to notice the effects of the slowdown as early as last October and especially later in the year.
“I think that came because of the holidays, so through November and December. That’s when you start noticing that the loads are not coming in on time, or they’re leaving a little bit late,” said Tish Uyehara, Armstrong’s marketing director. “Our customers have been very understanding, and partly because as soon as we knew that this was starting to make a difference, we informed them of the dock slowdowns and how it would impact the availability.”
Still, Armstrong is confident that the goods will make it to Hawaii, so there is no need for people to rush out and stock up.
At King Food Service, the focus is on chilled and frozen products like meat, seafood and cheese.
“Basically, all we can do is stock up and have enough product to weather the delays,” said President Dana Chun.
Armstrong and King Food Service count restaurants, hotels and supermarkets as their key customers.
