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Hurricane Harvey’s potential impact on grain exports
The projected path of Hurricane Harvey as of 10 a.m. CDT Monday. This shows the expected track of the circulation center. Image courtesy weather.com.
The total impact that Hurricane Harvey will have on grain exports from the Gulf Coast is yet to be determined.
Mike Steenhoek with the Soy Transportation Coalition says while the Texas Gulf is not that consequential for soybean and corn exports, it is important to wheat exports.
“Twenty-four percent of wheat exports leave from the Texas Gulf region—and so that whole area, naturally, is shut down and will be for the foreseeable future,” Steenhoek says.
The greater concern, from a soybean and corn perspective, is how Harvey will impact the lower Mississippi River, Steenhoek says. That area accounts for about 60 percent of U.S. soybean and corn exports.
“It has the potential of washing out bridges, washing out railroad bridges,” he says, “and if you have sustained winds, it can impose harm on the actual infrastructure itself— the grain export terminals.”
Steenhoek says grain handlers who export from the Mississippi Gulf region are taking Harvey very seriously.
“This is something that is going to really, at a minimum, impose some delays. At maximum, it could wreak some havoc on the entire grain and soybean logistics system.”
The latest forecasts predict New Orleans will receive from 5-10 inches of additional rainfall this week.
AUDIO: Mike Steenhoek
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