News

Refrigerated container availability threatens U.S. poultry exports

February 22, 2021

Exports of U.S. poultry to Asian markets including China are being threatened by a lack of available refrigerated shipping capacity needed to transport them overseas.

The problem, according to those in the industry, isn’t that the boxes known as reefers are not available; it’s that ocean carriers aren’t greatly interested in putting them on their ships because they can make so much money on dry boxes sent from Asia to the U.S. filled with consumer goods.

Without a sufficient number of reefer containers to carry poultry, U.S. exports could stall.

“We are very concerned with the unavailability of containers for our exports and fear the situation will only get worse if steps aren’t taken to correct the problems,” said Chaz Wilson, head of international sales for Pilgrim's, and USAPEEC chairman.

See more information in the Feb. 22 edition of MondayLine.