New Orleans: Food Distribution Disaster

Now we all know that New Orleans and nearby Gulf ports  are critical hubs for international food distribution....grain for the world, coffee and bananas for Americans;  seafood, sugar processing etc.  Not to mention that New Orleans is an irreplaceable global food heritage city.

From Food USA Navigator.com reports:

The Mississippi River, the cheapest route for the shipping of many crops and other commodities destined for overseas and domestic markets, has become inaccessible in parts. Up to 300 barges containing grains and other products have been left stranded.

Grain processors including Cargill are concerned that with the grain harvest season less than a month away, shipping will remain constrained during the busiest and most important time of the year.

Damage caused by the hurricane is also likely to have a significant impact on the nation's coffee supply. Over a quarter of all coffee stored in the United States is in New Orleans, the second largest stock of coffee behind New York.

The fear now is that floodwater has damaged large quantities of this stock, rendering it useless. This is likely to have a significant knock-on effect on major manufacturers of coffee-based food and beverages.

Such uncertainty has already created bullish prices, with New York commodity markets seeing coffee prices rise the most in six months, a picture reflected on the London-based futures market Liffe.

In addition, vital infrastructure has simply been swept away. Chiquita, one of many businesses to have been caught up in the terrible aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, is shifting its port operations from Gulfport Mississippi, along the coast from New Orleans, to Freeport and Port Everglades after Gulfport was destroyed.

"The city of Gulfport sustained tremendous wind and water damage, and many port facilities, including ours, have been severely affected” said Bob Kistinger, president and chief operating officer of Chiquita Fresh.

“While we are still assessing the situation, it is clear that we will need to relocate our services from Gulfport for the foreseeable future.”

In 2004, Gulfport handled approximately one-quarter of the company's banana imports to the United States with weekly shipments from Central America. In the near term, the company plans to utilize Freeport, Texas, Port Everglades, Florida, and possibly other ports to handle shipments that were previously scheduled to Gulfport.

Louisiana's shrimp and oyster industry has also been demolished by the storm and is expected to be out of action for the foreseeable future.

Louisiana Seafood Promotion and Marketing Board executive director Ewell Smith said the impact of the hurricane on Louisiana's $2.6 billion seafood industry "will be severe." The region produces 10 percent of the shrimp consumed in the United States and 40 percent of the oysters, putting oyster supplies - and prices - at particular risk.

Imperial Sugar is another company with important facilities in the region. Production at the group's cane sugar refinery at Gramercy, located approximately 20 miles northwest of New Orleans, was suspended on Saturday morning and a thorough damage assessment at the refinery is presently underway.

Image: Mississippi river barge load of grain from http://www.extension.umn.edu/distribution/resourcesandtourism/components/6685-33.html

Comments

[Cynthia]

Pretty apocolyptic outlook. As with all disasters, this is a good time for us to all pull together.

On the constructive side, widespread impact will make it harder for those far from the gulf to simply forget New Orelans and vicinity. May we remember, and pray, and work to see it all rebuilt.

[Foodie]

Way back when, when this notion of Homeland Security first came up we were concerned about the fact that much of the nation's food is trucked west to east along vulnerable highways. And Mexico and Chile, too, feed us, bigtime. Most of us had no clue as to the key role the port of New Orleans played in delivering us food.

[Cynthia]

It's true. I knew well its historic importance as a port, but that was from the days of sails and paddlesteamers. I knew it was still used, but really had no idea it was still so vital.

[barbwire]

I read that it also has the ONLY port capable of handling the big oil tankers that bring in the crude from other nations. And that it contains a massive natural gas hub, which supplies gas to the nation east of the Mississippi and some parts west of there. This could be intense alright.