A work slowdown by some West Coast dock workers is threatening the U.S. pork export market. The National Pork Producers Council (NPPC) joined 92 other food, agricultural and allied industry groups in urging the parties involved to resolve the issues, and NPPC even called on the federal government to consider all remedies to bring the dispute to a swift end.

Slowdowns by dock workers at the ports in Long Beach, Los Angeles and Oakland, Calif., and in Seattle and Tacoma, Wash., have stranded thousands of containers of pork and other farm products over the past several months. Since November, pork prices, for example, have tumbled by 20 percent in large part because of the port problem, and meat and other perishable products awaiting shipment soon may need to be destroyed or discounted and sold on the domestic market. One estimate has the U.S. meat and poultry industries losing more than $30 million a week.

The International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) and the Pacific Maritime Association (PMA) have been unable to hammer out a new contract since the last one expired in July. Although the ILWU initially agreed to continue sending workers to the ports during the contract negotiations, in November it reneged on that agreement.

NPPC says the dramatic growth in America’s agricultural exports products – from $46 million in 1994 to $144 billion in 2013 – can be directly attributed to the growth in Asian markets, which are most directly affected by the ports slowdowns.