Supply chain delays disrupt California agriculture exports

California farmers say they are having trouble exporting their crops because of delays in the global supply chain

SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- Amid an historic drought posing threats to future harvests, California farmers now say they have no way to export the crops they do have because of a kink in the global supply chain that has left container ships lined up off the Southern California coast with nowhere to deliver their goods.

Problems with the supply chain have retailers worried their shelves — and their customers' online shopping carts — will be empty during the crucial holiday shopping season, prompting emergency actions from state and federal leaders to clear up the logjam.

But the backlog of ships entering U.S. waters also means there are fewer making the trek back across the Pacific Ocean, leaving the farmers in one of the nation's most important agriculture regions with nowhere to send their products.

“We're at the mercy of foreign shipping companies,” said Roger Isom, president and CEO of the California Cotton Ginners and Growers Association and the Western Agricultural Processors Association. “We're in a game, somebody changed the rules on us and we have no way to correct it.”