In a country that exports more than a third of its agricultural production, it's not enough to just watch the local weather: Rain patterns in Panama matter, as do the occasional missile drop into the Red Sea.
These global shipping bottlenecks have made it more expensive to ship U.S. grain around the world, putting American farmers at a disadvantage while their competitors reap record harvests.
“The shipping industry is being forced to respond in ways that it has never done before,” said James Speer, a shipping expert at the State University of New York Maritime College, adding that expensive rerouting of ships was now the norm.
A multi-year drought has imposed restrictions on the Panama Canal, a vital passageway for cargo shipped from the Gulf of Mexico to Asia, including soybeans from Minnesota.
“Having competitive access to that market is critical,” said Justin Corley, senior director of transportation for CHS. “The Panama Canal is a shortcut that saves time, fuel and labor costs. The remaining restrictions prevent us from allowing our largest grain ships to transit there.”
Traffic through the Panama Canal is gradually returning to normal as the drought subsides, but another valuable shortcut on the other side of the globe remains in trouble.
“There are a lot of companies avoiding the Suez Canal, and CHS is one of them,” Corley said.
Traffic on shipping routes between the Mediterranean and the Indian Ocean has dropped significantly after Yemen's Islamist Houthi group attacked merchant ships in retaliation for Israel's war in Gaza.
