NCI Hosts Duluth Port Tour

Kate Ferguson, Director of Trade and Business Development with the Duluth Seaway Port Authority, gives an preview of the Duluth-Superior port before the boat cruise.

You may recall that NCI hosted a custom Grain Procurement course that included a tour of the Duluth port. The success of this course tour called for another Duluth Port trip, this time with a domestic audience of grain/agricultural experts.

There were 14 attendees on this week’s Duluth tour that occurred June 20-21, 2022. To kick off the tour, the group stopped for lunch in Aitkin, MN, where NCI Director Mark Jirik presented on “Big Picture Moving Agricultural Markets.” The presentation sparked discussion that continued on the bus all the remainder of the trip to Duluth.

Dan Wogsland, NDGGA Director, converses with Mark Hauglund, NWF Director, and Mark Jirik, NCI Director, during the tour of the CHS terminal.

The first stop was at the Marine Museum, where the group heard presentations from Kate Ferguson of Duluth Seaway Port Authority and Johnathon Lamb of Lake Superior Warehousing. The presentations provided an excellent preview of the harbor tour to come. The agricultural commodities that are moved through the port of Duluth-Superior are spring wheat, durum wheat, beet pulp pellets, canola, flax, and soybeans. Discussion continued heavily regarding transportation and exports of northern-grown crops.

Frayne Olson gives a market presentation to conclude the Duluth port tour trip.

Next, the group boarded the Vista Queen cruise ship for a tour through the port. The cruise began along the piers on Rie’s point, traveled under the Blatnik Bridge, then past the CHS terminal, then out through the Aerial Lift Bridge and Canal into Lake Superior, then finally looping back to the Vista Dock. The weather was beautiful for a boat ride, and the tour was extremely informative and interesting.

The first stop of Day 2 was at the CHS terminal in Superior, WI, for a tour of the facility. The agricultural commodities handled at CHS are spring wheat, durum wheat, canola, and flax. Annually, 35-40 vessels are loaded, which is 40-50 million bushels of these products. The group was fortunate enough to be able to see a railcar being loaded at the facility during the tour with CHS’s Dan Vandenhouten.

Next up, the group welcomed back Kate Ferguson, along with Peter Cramer of Duluth Cargo Connect for a tour by bus. Lunch was filled with presentations from NDSU’s very own Daryl Ritchison, NDAWN Director, and Frayne Olson, NDSU Distinguished Professor and Crops Economist. The lunch presentations set the stage covering many important weather and market topics to be continued on the bus ride to Fargo.

The NCI would like to thank those who participated on this tour, as well as its own staff members who worked to plan this successful event.