Inland Water Transportation Systems Limiting Competition and Capacity

Testifying to the House Ag Committee, Rick Calhoun with the National Grain and Feed Association, said the nation’s water transportation systems are hurting producers.

There are two impacts, Calhoun noted. First is capacity.

“When you don’t have enough capacity, the price of grain then goes down because the river prices every bushel of grain that is produced in this country, not just the ones that are grown around the river. So when prices along the river decline, the prices all over the nation are going to decline.”

Competition is also hurt with Brazil gaining ground on shipping soybeans around the world.

Calhoun raised concerns about the age and reliability of our inland water transportation systems and that they need to be repaired and renewed to be more modern, but cost will be an issue.