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Panama Canal congestion continues, no short-term fix in sight

An ag economist says the ongoing drought situation along the Panama Canal could disrupt U.S. export sales.

Allendale’s Greg McBride says some buyers may seek other destinations in the short term. “What it means for us is maybe we do see some of those soybeans going to Brazil instead of the US because of some of these slowdowns.”

He tells Brownfield the issue will not be resolved anytime soon. “You could talk about to potentially dredging, but that’s just not going to work out the way they think. If you don’t have the rain or the water, it’s just not there. Maybe at this point next year we might see this whole backlog alleviated at some point.”

McBride says some carriers have been detouring to longer routes to avoid the congestion and it’s caused shipping fuel prices to skyrocket.