b'18American Journal ofTransportation ajot.com(MARKETScontinuedadequaterainfallhasmeantIs breakbulk the shipping solution from page 15) morethanjusttheprospect at a favorable price. ofpoorcrops.Muchofits Soon after Russias inva- graincommercedependsfor Latin American produce?sion of Ukraine in February,onvesselstravelingupand the European Union looseneddowntheParanRiver. regulationsonimportsofHowever,becauseoftheBy Tad Thompson, AJOTgrains with traces of banneddrought,theriverswater pesticides,cedingresponsi- levelhasdroppedtoitsTobettermanagefruitarrivals,KopkeKopke continued that breakbulk ships from bilitytoindividualmemberlowest level in more than 70said, We need to move to breakbulk ships.Chile can be discharged and delivered for fumiga-countries. Spain immediatelyyears. This limits the volumeFifty years ago, the Chilean business startedtion. When the stuff is in containers, you never responded by relaxing importofgrainthatcanbetrans- with breakbulk service, which declined as con- know when it will arrive or be fumigated.standards of corn from Argen- porteddownriver.Addtotainer lines came in and offered lower freightGreenbergindicates:Peopletransitioned tinaandBrazil,asSpanishthat the relative shallownessrates.Ascompetitiondecreased,containeryears ago from breakbulk to containers because porkproducers,fearingaof the Buenos Aires channel,rates doubled and even tripled. Now, Kopkecontainers were relatively cheaper. Recently, feedshortage,aggressivelywhich is only 9.7 meters, andbemoans, We pay more and have no service. containersbecameveryexpensive,andthe lobbied their government foran inefficient port system toInadditiontocostproblems,giventheeconomics of breakbulk changed. Until refrig-areliablesource. Theirfearbegin with. All this creates abillsoflading,containercarriershavenoeratedcontainerratescomebacktoearth, washeightenedbyFrancesknock-oneffectattheportobligationtocomehereinatimelyway,preferbreakbulk.Headdedthatittakes woeful corn harvest this year. terminals in Buenos Aires, asKopke noted. How can you import when you4,000 pallets to fill a breakbulk ship.According to the US Depart- ocean going vessels, regard- dontknowwhenthefruitwillarrive?TheKopkesaid,Effortsarebeingmadeto ment of Agricultures widelylessofcargo,mustwaitcontainerlinesdontexhibitanyregardforreplace the containers because there was mis-followed monthly global grainlongerforberthingspacetheir customers. Its not the way it was yearstreatment by some of the container lines. That reports,Brazilcornexportsinand take extra time to load. ago,whentherewererelationshipsbetweenis not acceptable to the people who pay the August were a record high ofOntopofallthiswereimporters and the shipping lines. Our needsfreight. There have been many lawsuits made 7.6milliontons,reflectingthedevastatingwildfires,whichare not considered. He said, for example, thatby the people who were affected last year. This highlevelofproductionandbegan to burn at the end ofone Chilean fruit container ship embarked onis a very complicated story.strong global demand. (MARKETScontinued onDec. 15, with arrival expected 15 days later.Holtresponded,WeshareMr.Kopkes Boudethastenedtoaddpage 20) That ship docked on Feb. 4. (SOLUTIONcontinued on page 23)thatespeciallyintermsof wheat,additionalvolumes are relatively small. Absolute numbers wont make or breakWE KNOWeither country. But in terms ofwhatBrazilusuallydoes andwhatArgentinausually does in those markets, these were actually impressive num-bers, he said.l an iaD Elaysr ain anD PEOPLEh urtsg rainE xPortsFor South American grain exporters, these new develop-ments may be of relatively mar-ginalimpacttooveralltrade, but they represent bright spots inadecidedlymixedscene. Argentina, especially, has been beset by climate-related disrup-tions as well as by infrastruc-ture shortcomings.For an unprecedented third year in a row, La Nia condi-tions have blown through the Pacific and are likely to con-tinue at least until the end of this year. In the southern part ofSouthAmerica,LaNia caused rains to be delayed and drought conditions to worsen.Earlier this month, Argen-tinas Rosario Board of Trade releaseddevastatingnews. Becauseofinadequaterains, some130,000hectares,or 10%ofthewheatacreage, cantbeharvested.Another 34% of the wheat crop is in verypoorconditionthat could follow the same fate, the board said. TheboardaddedthataMexicomadeeasy.staggering91%ofthecur-rentcorncrophasntbeen plantedonschedule,with harvests next year already in jeopardy. The lack of water isaffectingeventheestab-lishmentsthathaveirriga-tion, the board wrote. The water is very low in the wells, and due to the scarce quan-tity, we have the problem of excess salts. Besides, as it is a complementaryirrigation,it cannot compensate today for1000 Foust Rd., Brownsville, TX 78521(956) 831-45921-800-378-5395theenormouslackofwaterportofbrownsville.comthat we have.ForArgentina,lackof'