NMPF Highlights Supply Chain Security
January 7, 2025
NMPF Trade Policy Director Tony Rice spoke to the challenges affecting the U.S. dairy industry due to shipping container break-ins at a Dec. 18 U.S. Chamber of Commerce event on supply chain security.
Organized crime groups in 2024 increasingly broke into intermodal containers on railroads in search of high-value items, causing collateral damage to dairy and other agricultural exporters.
Rice during a panel discussion detailed the financial losses that dairy exporters and producers incur when they must return and dispose of product that has been broken into, without the ability to file insurance claims. These break-ins also create significant food safety issues and could damage a producer’s reputation as a reliable supplier.
Congressmen Brad Schneider, D-IL, and David Valadao, R-CA, also spoke at the conference to highlight their co-sponsored bill, the Safeguarding Our Supply Chains Act. Endorsed by NMPF and the U.S. Dairy Export Council, the bill would authorize $20 million to create a crime coordination center within Homeland Security Investigations, as well as a task force comprised of relevant agencies.
