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Northern Corn Belt Ports align to strengthen transportation infrastructure

The director of operations for the Corn Belt Ports says the newly formed Northern Corn Belt Ports initiative brings five more key Mississippi River ports into the overall organization.

Chris Smith says it builds on work began in 2022 in Minnesota and Wisconsin.

“We want to create a governance structure to identify priorities for the region, have a regional identity, and use that to increase opportunities for multimodal investment,” he says.

He tells Brownfield that 60% of products moved on the waterways are ag commodities, so pooling resources to draw more infrastructure investment is a win for the region’s farmers.

“It helps get our rural areas on the federal scoreboard.”  He says, “By coming together, it provides laser-focused support for our ag groups, which is tremendously important.”

Smith says since 2022 the Corn Belt Ports initiative has attracted over $2 billion of infrastructure improvement funding to the Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, Illinois, and Missouri region.

The newly formed Northern Corn Belt Ports initiative comprises 11 Mississippi River counties and includes ports in La Crosse and Prairie du Chein in Wisconsin and Red Wing, Wabasha, and Winona in Minnesota.  It will be housed in the La Crosse Area Chamber of Commerce.

AUDIO: Chris Smith – Corn Belt Ports