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Stuck in transit on a peninsula

JimByrumThe Michigan Bean Shippers say there’s growing demand for dry beans globally, but infrastructure problems are limiting the state’s export potential.

President Jim Byrum tells Brownfield over one million hundredweight of Michigan dry beans are exported annually.  “We’ve had shortage of rail cars at some locations to be able to move some of those beans to Mexico, we certainly don’t have any outbound water transportation from Michigan anymore, and that rail infrastructure overall is being challenged in the Thumb and Saginaw Valley.”

He says while Michigan is a peninsula surrounded by water, beans can’t be shipped outside of the Great Lakes.  “Michigan has a law in the books that doesn’t allow the discharge of ballast water in the waters of the State of Michigan, but everybody else around us let’s that ballast water be discharged, which means we can’t load outbound vessels in the State of Michigan that are destined for other ports outside the U.S. and outside the Great Lakes.”

Byrum says logistics determine markets, and limited class one railroads, a lack of investment in short-line railroads, and no water transportation in Michigan have challenged how beans get to end markets.

Michigan Dry Bean Press Call

 

 

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