While global supply chain issues are reportedly easing, Florida farmers have made clear that moving perishable items with short shelf lives from fields to markets is still a struggle. During a meeting of the Senate Agriculture Committee, growers said the industry faces transportation and labor shortages in getting products out of the ground and to market.
Tori Rumenik, commodity services and supply chain manager for the Florida Fruit & Vegetable Association, said that what used to take two days is now taking weeks and, for some, months.
Suggestions for easing conditions included lowering the age and hours of operations for commercial truck drivers on interstates as a way to entice more workers into that part of the industry, limiting the ability of shippers to depart Florida ports with empty containers, encouraging consumers to buy domestic products, and increasing transportation weight limits for agricultural products.
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