Rain and Flooding From Harvey Likely to Disrupt Wheat Exports

(Agriculture.com) –  Flooding from tropical storm Harvey, the most powerful storm to strike the United States as a hurricane in more than a decade, will disrupt wheat shipments from the ports of Houston and Corpus Christi, says Ben Scholz of the Texas Wheat Producers Board. Scholz told Bloomberg that most of the Texas wheat crop was not affected by Harvey but exports could suffer.

Ports on the Texas Gulf handle a quarter of U.S. wheat exports and only small amounts of U.S. corn and soybean shipments. Ports in Louisiana are the outlets for roughly six of every 10 bushels of corn and soybeans. If rainfall and flooding from Harvey interferes with Mississippi River ports, it could slow down the movement of corn and soybeans to overseas markets.

Scholz said cotton and soybeans were the crops most at risk from Harvey. Texas is the No. 1 cotton growing state, forecast to harvest 8.8 million bales of the estimated U.S. crop of 20.5 million bales.