Agricultural producers are losing $1.75 billion worth of exports monthly – as the ports are handling less than 50 percent of their normal volumes, the Agriculture Transportation Coalition (ATC) reports. The U.S. Forage Export Council says it is losing $266,000 worth of hay and forage exports each day. And, in January alone, cherry growers in Oregon lost more than $250,000 of export sales directly related to port disruption, according to ATC.

Robert McEllrath, president of the 20,000-member International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU), said last week that his group was close to finalizing an agreement with the Pacific Maritime Association (PMA), the authority that manages the ports. However, over the weekend, PMA temporarily suspended its weekend vessel loading operations because of ongoing congestion. The bad feelings escalated even more on Monday when PMA accused the union of seeking the right to fire any arbitrator, a charge ILWU denies, reports Politico Pro's Marianne Levine.  FG

—This article originally appeared in Politico’s Morning Agriculture newsletter