USW is very concerned about the current disruption in wheat exports from the Port of Vancouver, WA, and has coordinated with other organizations calling on USDA to resolve the situation immediately.
At issue is the suspension of official grain inspection and weighing services at United Grain Corporation’s export elevator in Vancouver, WA, as of July 7, 2014. Because of an ongoing labor dispute between International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) workers and United Grain, Washington Governor Jay Inslee had ordered state police to escort grain inspectors across union picket lines to work. Then, with little notice, the governor withdrew the police escort. The Washington State Department of Agriculture (WSDA), which is delegated the authority by USDA’s Grain Inspection, Packers and Stockyards Administration (GIPSA) to inspect and weigh grain in the state, suspended those services reportedly because it was concerned about the safety of its employees.
USW and the National Association of Wheat Growers (NAWG) believe that under the U.S. Grain Standards Act, Congress vested in the Secretary of Agriculture the obligation to provide official inspection services at export locations to facilitate efficient and cost-effective marketing of U.S. grains and oilseeds — even if an authorized state agency fails to do so.
“If Washington state inspectors are unable to perform their duties,” said NAWG President Paul Penner, a wheat farmer from Hillsboro, KS, “then the time has come for federal grain inspectors to step in and do their mandated jobs to get grain flowing out of the Port of Vancouver.”
"With the wheat harvest well underway and the importance of exports to our producers and customers, this situation is unacceptable,” said USW President Alan Tracy.
This issue also has the potential to create up-country backlogs in an export system already dealing with rail capacity issues that have pushed up basis levels (see story above). Reducing capacity by removing an export shipping point makes it more challenging to facilitate efficient marketing of the U.S. wheat crop as well as the large predicted corn and soybean crops.
Citing the “extremely troubling precedent” being set, USW and NAWG coordinated with 20 other organizations to send a letter on July 14 urging USDA to immediately restore inspection and weighing services at United Grain. The organizations expressed concern about how this situation may disrupt official services at other U.S. grain export locations. Just this week, USW and NAWG expressed their concerns again at a face-to-face meeting with USDA.
“Independent inspection and certification by the Federal Grain Inspection Service or authorized state agencies is fundamental to the integrity and reliability of the nation’s grain export system,” Tracy said. “With half of all U.S. wheat exported, exports are the key to producer prices. Shutting down a major export elevator for any period seriously disrupts our system, short-changes our customers who rely on us for their supplies and costs farmers money. The Secretary needs to put federal inspectors on the job — and he needs to do it now."
Source : uswheat.org