While still affected by severe congestion in the West Coast ports, February exports of U.S. beef, pork and lamb bounced back to some degree from the totals posted in January, according to data released by USDA and compiled by the U.S. Meat Export Federation.
Conditions are steadily improving on the West Coast, where congestion related to a labour dispute delayed container freight traffic over the past four months. But the tentative contract agreement that eased tensions on the West Coast was not reached until Feb. 20, so this issue still had a significant impact on meat exports in February.
There was not much relief from the shipping backlog until March, and container traffic in some ports still has not returned to normal.