How the port strike threatens the US banana supply

A strike at ports along the East Coast and Gulf of Mexico could threaten Americans’ supply of bananas. 

Three-quarters of the nation’s bananas — more than 3.8 million metric tons — come through ports handled by the International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) each year, according to the American Farm Bureau Federation. 

Some 27 percent of the nation’s banana imports came through the Port of Wilmington alone in 2023. The Delaware port touts itself as North America’s largest banana port, with Dole and Chiquita each calling at Wilmington twice a week. 

Tens of thousands of ILA workers at ports from Maine to Texas went on strike shortly after midnight Tuesday after the union and the United States Maritime Alliance (USMX) failed to reach an agreement on a new contract. 

While many retailers front-loaded or diverted shipments to the West Coast in anticipation of the strike, these weren’t feasible options for banana imports, said Jason Miller, a Michigan State University professor of supply chain management. 

The value per pound of bananas is “quite low,” meaning it does not make sense to transport them by plane or reroute them to the West Coast and run shipments across the country via train or truck, Miller explained. 

As a perishable item, bananas also cannot be front-loaded, as has been done with holiday imports, he noted. 

“It's one of those product categories that essentially once we run out of the current domestic supply for the areas serviced by the East and Gulf Coast, it's going to be hard to get additional ones here,” Miller told The Hill. 

“A lot of Americans don't realize that for many things, there just isn't a Plan B because it's not economical to do so, and this is an example of one of those type of goods,” he added. “There is not some magical fallback that we can go to with this.” 

There are wide-ranging estimates of the potential economic impact of the strike. While the Conference Board projects a cost of around $540 million per day, JPMorgan analysts estimate the cost could be up to $5 billion per day. 

President Biden has dispatched senior officials to urge the two sides to “come to a fair agreement fairly and quickly.” However, he has so far declined to invoke the Taft-Hartley Act, which allows presidents to seek an 80-day “cooling off” period for strikes that “imperil the national health or safety.”