Ohio could run out of bananas and other fruit if dockworkers strike

INDIANAPOLIS – Americans might have to do without bananas at the grocery store soon if U.S. dockworkers walk off the job at the end of the month.

According to Daily Mail and other outlets, other fruits would also be affected, but Americans eat more bananas than any other fresh fruit per capita. About two thirds of our bananas are unloaded at U.S. ports on the East Coast and Gulf Coast. A key distribution port for Chiquita and Dole is Port Wilmington, Delaware. That’s one of the ports that could shut down as part of this strike.  It’s also a key location for unloading grapes, clementines, pears and kiwi from around the world.

If this strike happens, any fruit that arrives on shore after Oct. 1 would go bad within days. Or it would become crazy expensive because of the extra refrigeration to keep it fresh.

That date is important because it’s the deadline for 45,000 dockworkers to go on strike if they don’t get a new contract. The International Longshoreman’s Association is negotiating on their behalf. They want an 80% pay raise over six years, claiming that dockworkers deserve a share of the profits that international container carriers received during the pandemic.

Of course, fruit isn’t the only thing that would be affected. A one-week strike, if it happens, could reportedly cost the U.S. economy $7.5 billion.

Bananas might be the most obvious, immediate sign of trouble if the bins at the grocery stores are suddenly empty in the next couple weeks.

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