Though the global COVID pandemic officially ended more than a year ago, many of the issues we saw during that time remain, especially when it comes to agricultural shipping. Supply chain issues have persisted since COVID, and Tiffany Comprés, a partner at Pierson Ferdinand law firm with experience in agricultural shipping, believes the next few months will be tight.
“But a big question, at least in my mind, is having seen what happened during COVID, are the ocean carriers going to take a little bit of responsibility this time for upholding their end of the business bargain? And my answer, at least tentatively, is, I doubt it,” she said. “They had record profits even though they were saying, ‘Oh my God, things are so hard’. Every excuse to add a new fee. They took advantage of each one of those congestion charges and all kinds of things. Even people that had steady shipping contracts saw their prices soar.”
She says that’s just not how the system is supposed to work.
“And then there’s the other side, which is about avoiding dealing with issues when they do arise, and I’m hoping that all parties learned from COVID and prepared for this possibility in their contracts. First of all, that they have contacts because many of them didn’t, and that those that did added terms to deal with these potential issues instead of just letting it up to chance,” she said.
Overall, she said there were many lessons learned during COVID, but if the information sticks remains to be seen.