Wheat shipments out of the US fell to record lows last month as a result of a decline in water levels on the River Mississippi, plus price pressures because of a global good harvest this year.
Some two-thirds of US grain exports historically have been shipped on barges via the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico.
While water levels had improved slightly from the previous month’s record low, the world’s crop buyers had already been purchasing more supplies from elsewhere.
Export inspections of American wheat in the week ending November 2nd totalled 71,608 tonnes, some of which left Duluth, Minnesota via the Great Lakes, with some wheat shipped from Duluth, Minnesota, but virtually nothing down to the Gulf on the Mississippi. It was the smallest total on record in weekly USDA data going right back to 1983.