Eric Sfiligoj and Lara Sowinski discuss the proposed longshoremen strike, ban on Chinese-made drones, and another video clip from the Mid America CropLife Association annual meeting.
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*This is a partial and edited transcript:
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Eric Sfiligoj: Hello. Welcome to another edition of CropLife Retail Week. I’m Eric Sfiligoj editor, CropLife and CropLife IRON. Here again with Lara Sowinski to talk shop. Lara, how are you doing?
Lara Sowinksi: Okay, fine. Thank you. How are you?
ES: I am doing well. Accept. I guess this will be. This will be a sobering, addition of CropLife Retail Week. I’m guessing I’m going to toss this to you directly, because I know we got some news just before we came on to record the video regarding one of your favorite topics, the longshoremen and their contract negotiation attempts. I’ll let you tell our viewers all the happy news on that front.
LS: Yeah. Well, you know, we’ve been talking about this for a while. The, International Longshoremen’s Association, ILA, which represents longshoremen along East Coast and Gulf Coast, their contract expires at the end of September. And, you know, just to recap, while things, months ago kind of seemed to start off on a happy note, people were hopeful that they could negotiate, and not, surpass the or past the deadline.
However, with a couple weeks left before the contract expires at the end of September, folks are kind of digging in their heels. Reports out this past week, so the ILA delegates have unanimously, unanimously backed a potential coast wide strike on October 1st. And, Indeed, ILA president Harold Daggett emphasized the need for the union to repair and, hit the streets at 12:01 a.m. on October 1st, not 12:02 a.m. 12:01 a.m. on October 1st.
You know. So, not looking real good. Obviously the, USMC, United States Maritime Alliance. So, those are the folks, waterfront employers. They feel, you know, they’ve, put forth some, nice wage increases, Premier health coverage, etc., etc. but, it’s not looking good at this moment. So, you know, we’ll see. As I’ve said before, this is typically how it goes, with whether it’s ILWU on the West Coast or ILA, oftentimes, it does get kind of heated.
And then things, you know, sometimes resolve, sometimes they do, keep on talking once the deadline passes and things resolve. But, gosh, I don’t know, I don’t know, I, I felt a little bit better months ago, but obviously the closer you get to it, it, it seems a little, little hairy. So we’ll keep you posted. We’ll see what happens.
ES: I know that, you know, over the summer, a lot of folks anticipating what might be, where we’re at right now in other words, a standstill, have, kind of got a a, got an a jump on early imports and looking at other, ports to bring stuff in. So at least folks have somewhat, put some contingency planning in place.
So if things, do move into a strike situation, hopefully it won’t be too, too terrible. But it’s a lot of cargo, so we’ll see. We’ll keep you posted. I was going to say, and I know we’ve, we’ve talked a of course about, you know, the rail strikes and in the US here in the US and up in Canada and in those instances because they were nationwide strikes and they would impact negatively the economies, the, the governments of those respective countries both stepped in.
And from what I read on this issue, it sounds like this is they’re calling for a nationwide strike here as well. So, I ask again, is there a possibility that the government could basically say, okay, guys, you got to keep working while you negotiate? Could that happen?
LS: Yeah. You know, yeah. I recall that you were talking about that, recently cut and I, I gosh, in the 80s, when I was working for Sony Corporation in Long Beach, there was a similar scenario, in that the ILWU in this case was striking.
And if I recall, I do think the government was close to stepping in or they they maybe did somehow, but it I mean, obviously the government prefers the unions handle it and, you know, resolve these things. You know, we’ll just have to see it. I mean, they’re cautious before they do that for, you know, good reasons.
So we’ll see. I can’t recall, like I said, it, it was a long time ago if I recall correctly, was in the 80s. Yeah. We’ll see. All right. Well, again, like you say, viewers, stay tuned over the next couple of weeks, I’m sure we’ll have more updates on this as they become available. So indeed, you know, well, what else we got?
I have even more good news. Putting new news in the air. Quotes of quotes. I you probably remember back in July when we had our Tech Hub Live 2024 event in Des Moines, Iowa? When we ended the event, we had tacked on a, a post event workshop looking at drones. And I remember one of the speakers there was talking about, you know, it was drones 101, and he was talking a little bit about drone usage.
And, you know, how you go about getting licensed and mechanical considerations, etc., etc.. And one of the speakers there I remembered mentioned that there was an effort underway in some circles to see that certain drones that are made by Chinese manufacturers would not be allowed to be used in the marketplace going forward. And again, at that point he was just speculating.
But lo and behold, in here in early September, we found out that the House of Representatives has passed a resolution called the countering CCP Drones Act, which in a nutshell, will basically ban the sale of a Chinese made drones in the U.S. And DJI is one of the biggest drone manufacturers for agriculture and other businesses as well.
So that basically if this that now like I say, this was house passed by that passed by the House, it goes to the Senate now next. But then if the Senate passes a version of this bill and then they reconcile it and it goes to the president and it’s signed, then basically the way I’m reading this that, companies like DJI will no longer be able to sell drones into the U.S marketplace.
So this could be really bad for, you know, the folks in agriculture that have been applying using DJI drones. So yeah, I, I pulled off a similar, news item from Reuters. And it did specify that, if like you mentioned, if it does pass through the Senate, the legislation would not prevent existing, DJI drones from operating in the U.S this would prohibit the company’s products.
I mean, given the market share that DJI has, which is, an overwhelming majority of the market, this would be a big deal. And the other thing that stood out for me, again, on this Reuters report is that, Democrats and Republicans both excuse me, seem to be behind this.
And again, this is, over concerns about national security risks. So, we’ll see what happens. I don’t know when it’s supposed to be, going to the Senate, but, yeah, kind of an important news item, to say the least. Yeah, at least from our perspective. And again, I know, you know, there’s we’ve talked about the end of September.
I know there’s potential governmental shutdown, the federal shutdown that they’ve been talking about. So I know the folks in DC have their hands full with other legislation. So you’re not sure the Senate’s going to get to this? You know, any time soon. But as you said, I mean, for folks that already have these drones in the market, they can continue to use them.
But I mean, when it comes to maintenance issues or wanting to upgrade to the newest technology, you’d be at a standstill. You wouldn’t be able to buy any of these, these drones that you bought from suppliers in the past. And I’m sure that will have a negative impact on market share going forward in this state. So, yeah, just on a side note to the way this, Reuters, news item was presented is that, this was called China Week.
So it wasn’t just the, the drone issue, that the house was looking at. They were looking at, if you recall, there were some, calls to impose new restrictions on Chinese technology as it applies to TikTok to EV batteries. Certain. Gosh, what else we have here? There were like 3 or 4 things.
Again, all kind of related to technology from China that the house was looking to put some restrictions on. So, yeah, you’re right. There’s a lot that’s going on. And of a number of high stakes stuff to be sure. Yeah. Well, again, viewers, stay tuned. We’ll have more for you as we find stuff out. So sure will.
But hey, I wanted to share a little bit of something else with folks. And, you may remember last week I had mentioned, of course, I had just attended the annual meeting for the Mid-America Crop Life Association that took place in Minnesota, in the first week of September, just after Labor Day. And, I did have another video clip to share.
Had Phil Hollis from Helena was talking about what was going on in the marketplace, and he was talking about new opportunities in the industry. But before he talked about that part, he actually I have a little video clip here. He was talking a little bit about why we’ve seen some some inventory issues in, the ag retail space recently.
And here is a video clip of him explaining what’s going on there and why we’re seeing what we’re seeing.
Phil Hollis: So a lot of your, the basic supplier side, a lot of you frustrated with distribution, retail, other two step one, step one run across the United States. As far as taking images, the recent retailers distributors aren’t taking imagery, but haven’t been for the last year have just been slow.
You get anywhere from 60 to 70% of their heads make in the chain. There’s never one like coming out of covet that you can raise two crops. And I think, yeah, I think some of that would have be some type of pattern. They’re looking it up and see Germany is coming in at the end of the day that had heads into it through.
You’re starting to see some of that. You’re starting to see the channels start to get it out more. Of a position that they can start to do more natural acts. I think the industry will try to resort to just in time for it, to be honest with you, that one word. So it’s a balance that the retail distribution chain back to.
Fine without that. But make no bones about it. I mean, we talked about the path that goes up and down when I was trying to branch, early on in my career, cost of money was 9.6%. You know, we weren’t really forecasting for you to break up with that in years. And now we’re starting to come back from.
Yeah, follow up on six, seven, 8%. But the reality of it is that most products just get to figure out where that’s at. Retail price points. And exactly what we do have, we need to do a lot of work to achieve that.
ES: So that’s what Phil Hollis from Helena had to say regarding the supply situation.
And a lot of retailers. And again, Laura, you know, we’ve talked about Covid many, many times over the last several years and its impact on the marketplace. And again, you know, the pandemic took place in 2020, and here we are four years later. And that, I guess you’d say the the tail, the Covid tail is incredibly long and is still, still having an impact on the marketplace.
So yeah. Yeah, yeah. Exactly. Trying to fine tune the just in time just in case. Just just because there’s you gotta have it. All right. Yes. We’ll be we’ll be doing the whole just issue I’m sure of, of crop life coming up. Stay tuned for that maybe in the spring.
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CropLife Retail Week: Longshoremen Strike, Chinese Drone Ban, and More MACA Highlights
Sfiligoj is the Editor for both CropLife and CropLife IRON magazines. He travels regularly to cover industry events and has been dedicated to the ag retail industry since he joined the staff in 2000. See all author stories here.
Lara Sowinski is Group Editor for the CropLife Media Group at Meister Media Worldwide. Lara is also Co-Chair of the VISION Conference. See all author stories here.
