Global Shipping Container Disruptions and U.S. Agricultural Exports

Containerized exports are significant for U.S. agriculture, especially for certain products, such as meat, tree nuts, and oilseeds. We assess the trade losses to U.S. agriculture arising from shipping container disruptions in 2021. We rely on a non-linear panel event study design to measure the dynamic treatment effects using both bills of lading and Census Bureau export data at the U.S. port level. Our findings are that the volume of U.S. containerized agricultural exports was 22 percent below the counterfactual level from May 2021 to January 2022, amounting to USD 10 billion in export losses. There were differences in the trade effects across geographic regions and product groups. We find that Western and Southern ports faced the brunt of export losses, with meat, edible fruits and nuts, oilseeds, and animal feed being the most affected.