mr. bessac and ms. farmer, when we look at freight transportation systems and we look at the midwest and some of the challenges that we have with, how would you address those challenges where we have that lack of containers and other members of the panel if you would like to jump in on that as well. >> certainly i'll go ahead and start, chairman fischer. i think that what you'll see is that we've proven in normal times that we have sufficient containers to be able to move the product that wants to move export. in fact, last year we moved 236,000 units of grain in a box back to the west coast. we worked very closely with the ocean carriers and the trucking companies and they are able to scale relatively quickly to be able to meet the demands. what bnsf has been very focused on is improving our velocity, because as you well know when we look at the speed with which we can turn these assets, we can create more capacity for the supply chain in the market. if we invest in our infrastructure, if we have expan

mr. bessac and ms. farmer when we look at freight transportation systems and we look at the midwest and some of the challenges that we have with containers, how would you address those challenges where we have that lack of containers to move our product. and other members of the panel if you would like to jump in on that as well. >> certainly. i'll go ahead and start chairman fisher. i think that what you'll see is that we've proven in normal times that we have sufficient containers to be able to move the product that wants to move export. in fact, last year we moved 236,000 units of grain in a box back to the west coast. we work very closely with the ocean carriers and trucking companies and they are able to scale relatively quickly to be able to meet the demands. what bnsf has been very focused on is improving our velocity because as you well know, when we look at the speed with which we can turn these assets we can create more capacity for the supply chain and the market. if we invest in our infrastr

mr. norman bessac, the vice president of international sales of cargo. so welcome. >> thank you chairman fisher and members of committee and sub-committee for inviting me to testify. trade maximizes the retail ranchers and farmers produce and we are able to sell them to the domestic and international markets where they have the most value. this creates the best opportunities for car gill, our customers, our farmers and ranchers and our hard working employees and where we operate. ports are an intergral part of the supply chain. let me detail the challenges that occur when there are problems with product. car gill has product processed through fresh beef and pork located in nebraska, kansas, texas, iowa, pennsylvania, illinois, colorado and california. customers from around the world depend on high-quality fresh u.s. beef and pork to sell in supermarkets, restaurants and food processing plants. fresh meat has a relatively short shelf life. it must be quickly packaged and shipped in temperature controlled trucks, rail cars or containers to ensure product i