Farmers in ‘Surprising’ State help Ease Grain Distribution Disruptions
Global distribution disruptions caused by the war in Ukraine have prompted U.S. farmers and shippers to step up to ease the shortages.
While that’s no surprise, where those corn and soybean growers and distributors are located might be. They’re in New York state.
New York-produced grain has become more important than ever to local and world economies, says William Scriber, executive director of the Port of Oswego. The port is based on the west side of Lake Ontario and is part of the Great Lakes Seaway system. The system is a 2,300-mile “marine highway” that extends from the Atlantic Ocean to the Great Lakes.
Scriber says the first grain export out of Port Oswego this year consisted of more than 18,000 metric tons of soybeans. The grain shipped to Brussels and Ireland on March 31, according to a news release.
“We have contracts for another six international grain shipments this year, and we expect to gain more because of the strain on the world’s supply chain,” he told AgriTalk host, Chip Flory, on Thursday.
About 100 farmers from Oswego County and central New York made the first grain deliveries to the Port export center. They are part of a recent agreement the Port signed with The Andersons, Inc., Maumee, Ohio, to lease the Port’s 780,000-bushel grain storage facility and export the grain on vessels to Europe and Africa.
Northeast Region Is Rich In Resources
The Great Lakes Seaway system serves eight U.S. states and two Canadian provinces, Flory said, during a conversation with Scriber on Thursday.
“If this region were a country, it would have the third-largest economy in the world with a GDP of $5.5 trillion,” Flory says. “That's why we are going to start focusing more and more on the St. Lawrence Seaway system.”
Hundreds of ships from all over the world make thousands of transits through the St. Lawrence Seaway annually. The ships carry a wide variety of cargoes including grains, fertilizer, iron ore, coal, steel, stone, and large cargoes of windmill components. The visitors’ center for the port historically attracts visitors from all 50 states and more than 20 countries, according to a news release distributed by Scriber’s staff.
“A lot of people think that New York is just New York City, but it’s much more than that. It’s a large agricultural area, both for growing cash crops and, quite notably, dairy,” Scriber told Flory.
About 25% Of New York State Is Farmland
According to the USDA-NASS 2021 State Agriculture Overview for New York, the state ranks third in the country for corn silage production with a value of $311 million. Grain corn ranks 17th in the U.S. with production worth $460 million. New York has nearly 7.2 million acres of farmland, accounting for about one-quarter of the state's land area.
“We’re blessed because our port has a lot of major corn and soybean producers within 75 miles of it,” Scriber told Flory. “We’ve already received over eight trucks this morning and it’s not even afternoon yet. We’ll probably have 30 to 40 trucks in here today just with corn.”
Scriber says the Port of Oswego is the largest facility of its kind on Lake Ontario and has an on-site USDA lab.
“This system can unload a truckload of grain (35,000 lbs.) in less than a minute, and it can load a railcar (100 tons of grain) in just 8 minutes,” he says in the release. “This reduced unloading time allows farmers the ability to flow more grain into the facility.”
Scriber’s conversation with Flory on AgriTalk is available here:
