There's been a growing concern around the containerized supply chain for the agriculture sector.

Greg Northey, the Director of Industry Relations with Pulse Canada, says it all sort of began or at least the most acute problems we're seeing began with the early pandemic lockdowns and even before that when COVID first hit China and factories were shutting down.

He says with that we saw the lockdowns, plus the factory shutdowns, and world trade dropped - an unprecedented drop.

Northey says as a result shipping lines started to cancel out of sailings, then when things started to open up there was an explosion of demand for certain goods which tied up containers.

"It was around that time where container prices would have gone for people wanting to ship, TVs from China to North America. Usually you would have paid, around $10,000 a container or around there, and they went to almost $30,000 per container. So, you know, there was just this incredible demand at that point. And that fall, the pulse sector was just really unable to access empty containers, they just weren't available for use."

He says now there's just not the service for export containers, as shipping lines have deprioritized exports and raised costs.