This article has been reprinted from the Sept. 12 USDA Grain Transportation Report.
The Transportation Services Division of USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) has updated the Profiles of Top U.S. Agricultural Ports, a report detailing the importance of U.S. ocean ports to agricultural imports and exports.
The report provides data that quantifies and describes the movement of agricultural cargo through the top 20 U.S. ocean ports for agricultural trade, including breakouts of the top containerized and bulk movement for these products through the individual ports.
It further provides data on the use of refrigeration, the top origin and destination markets, and the top shipping lines used.
The data are sourced from PIERS, a collection of bills of lading and manifest data that provide a view of agricultural trade by how it moves through the ocean transportation network.
This article provides a brief introduction of the top five ports in 2017.
Readers are encouraged to find more information about this report on the AMS website at Profiles of Top U.S. Agricultural Ports.
Top 5 U.S. Ports Moving Waterborne Agricultural Trade
In 2017, more than 197 million metric tons (mmt) of waterborne agricultural cargo moved through U.S. seaports.
The top five ports (by volume) moving waterborne agricultural trade were the New Orleans Ports Region2 (37 percent of total U.S. waterborne agricultural trade); New York/New Jersey (5 percent); Kalama (5 percent); Los Angeles (5 percent); and Tacoma (4 percent).
Together, these five ports represented about 56 percent of the waterborne agricultural trade in 2017.
Table 1 summarizes the tonnages of total agricultural exports and imports, along with their percentages of the total, moved by these ports. As indicated, U.S. agricultural trade is largely dominated by exports.
The New Orleans Port Region was the leading seaport, moving 47 percent of the total exports and 37 percent of total waterborne agricultural trade.
Each of the major coastlines and their respective seaports offer unique opportunities and services for agricultural shippers.
The grain industry takes advantage of the vast transportation system around the country to move grain and other agricultural products through all major seaports.
The next section provides a summary of the key characteristics of export and import seaports in 2017.
Top U.S. Export and Import Ports
Grain and soybean products combined are the largest U.S. agricultural exports by volume.
Therefore, ports that specialize in moving these products will rank at the top for agricultural exports. In 2017, the New Orleans Port Region was the top U.S. port region for moving agricultural trade (70.6 mmt for exports and 1.95 mmt for imports).
The region boasts a string of export grain elevators along the Mississippi River from Baton Rouge to Myrtle Grove.
All modes of transportation (ocean, barge, rail, and truck) connect in this important port region, allowing oceangoing vessels to serve ports 228 miles upriver from the Gulf of Mexico.
The Port of Kalama ranked second for waterborne agricultural exports, which showcases the importance of the Pacific Northwest (PNW) for bulk grain exports.
With a 7-mile industrial area of riverfront property adjacent to the deep-draft navigation channel of the Columbia River, Kalama handled more than 10 mmt of grain and animal feed exports in 2017.
More than 99 percent of agricultural exports through New Orleans and Kalama moved in bulk vessels.
Another PNW port—the Port of Tacoma, located in the Puget Sound region of Washington state— ranked third for total waterborne agricultural exports in 2017.
The Port moved nearly 7.5 mmt of agricultural exports.
Grain products, soybeans, and animal feed accounted for about 80 percent of the port’s agricultural exports.
Different from the Gulf seaports, the agricultural cargos shipped through Los Angeles, Long Beach, and even Tacoma are highly containerized commodities.
The large population base and extensive transportation network in California attract a significant percentage of consumer import products, which are almost exclusively moved in containers.
These imports leave a pool of empty containers for the export market.
West Coast ports also provide direct access to some of the United States’ largest export markets in Eastern Asian countries.
Tables 2 and 3 show the top five U.S. ports for exports and imports of agricultural products in 2017, respectively.
These tables show that a variety of U.S. regions support U.S. agricultural trade and help meet domestic and global demand.
Globally, the United States is the top supplier of grain and oilseeds; and these products are among the top agricultural commodities exported from each of the ports listed. Major import commodities include beverages (both alcoholic and non-alcoholic), wine, meat, fruit, and grocery items (Table 3).
While the Gulf and Pacific Northwest ports operate mostly bulk grain shipments, agricultural trade through major seaports on the East and Southwest coasts are mostly high-valued containerized products.
The top U.S. agricultural import ports are concentrated in the most populated regions, the Northeast and Southwest.
The top two import ports, New York/New Jersey and Philadelphia, handled over a quarter of the total U.S. waterborne agricultural imports from a variety of origins including Europe, Eastern Asia, South America, and Australia.
California seaports transported 15 percent of the imports, most of which came from Eastern Asian, South American and southwestern Pacific countries (see Table 3).
Conclusion
The agricultural community uses ocean transportation networks extensively to serve its global customers.
The Profiles of Top U.S. Agricultural Ports provides an updated view of the top 20 U.S. ocean ports moving U.S. agricultural export and import traffic, along with shipping lines used, and destination and origin countries.