According to the USDA Grain Transportation Report, the cost to ship corn and soybeans from Minneapolis to Japan through the Pacific Northwest declined from the second quarter to the third. Lower rail and ocean freight rates were a factor for the PNW route. Shipping costs rose 13 percent on the route from Minneapolis to the Gulf. That bump was primarily due to a 63 percent increase in barge rates and flooding on the Mississippi River. Trucking rates increased seven percent.
