Pandemic keeps grain moving in Thunder Bay

Jul 16, 2020

The port moved 1.1 million tonnes of grain in May

By Diego Flammini
Staff Writer
Farms.com

One bright spot during the COVID-19 outbreak may be that the Port of Thunder Bay is busy facilitating exports of Canadian grain.

The port moved 1.1 million tonnes of grain in May and most shipments went overseas. For comparison, the port moved 901,000 tonnes of grain in May 2019.

Drought in countries like Australia, export restrictions in Russia and overall increased demand led buyers to look at Canadian grain this year, said Tim Heney, CEO of the Port of Thunder Bay.

“It’s kind of a coincidence of events you might say,” he told Farms.com. “The pandemic caused some countries to outlaw grain exports to protect domestic food supplies. We had a lower Canadian dollar that created demand and put Canada in a good position. We also had a large carry-over from last year caused by the rail blockades.”

Ocean vessel traffic increased at the port, contributing to the larger number of grain shipments.

Between Jan. 1 and May 31, 2019, 95 ocean vessels came through the port’s docks. During the same period in 2020, that number jumped to 119. The number of foreign vessels also grew from 24 in the first five months of 2019 to 41 in the same window in 2020.

“The pandemic seems to be making the (Great Lakes St. Lawrence) Seaway a more appealing route,” Heney said. “I could see this trend continuing.”

Video: Evolution of Beef Cattle Farming

The Clear Conversations podcast took to the road for a special episode recorded in Nashville during CattleCon, bringing listeners straight into the heart of the cattle industry. Host Tracy Sellers welcomed rancher Steve Wooten of Beatty Canyon Ranch in Colorado for a wide-ranging discussion that blended family history and sustainability, particularly as it relates to the future of beef production.

Sustainability emerged as a central theme of the conversation, a word that Wooten acknowledges can mean very different things depending on who you ask. For him, sustainability starts with the soil. Healthy soil produces healthy grass, which supports efficient cattle capable of producing year after year with minimal external inputs. It’s an approach that equally considers vegetation, animal efficiency, and long-term profitability.

That philosophy aligned naturally with Wooten’s involvement in the U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, where he served as a representative for the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association. The roundtable brings together the entire beef supply chain—from producers to retailers—along with universities, NGOs, and allied industries. Its goal is not regulation, Wooten emphasized, but collaboration, shared learning, and continuous improvement.