Précis

Seaport Consultants, Inc. prepared this paper as part of a study for the Economic Research Service of the US Department of Agriculture (USDA). The study investigated the logistics costs in the agricultural trade of several commodities moving from the US to Mexico and the modal choices made by shippers. These commodities included grains, apples, chilled pork, bananas and other perishables. Commodities and transport modes examined included barging of grains down the Mississippi and bulk shipping to Mexican Atlantic ports versus direct rail to central Mexico using unit trains, as well as the impact on grain import patterns of dredging the Port of Veracruz. Finally, the study examined use of Pacific Coast containerized shipping versus truck for high value import commodities bound for California. William Hall is also Chair, Transport Research Board (TRB) Task Force on Agricultural Transportation.

The full paper is available as an Adobe Acrobat (PDF) file. If you do not have Acrobat Reader, you can download this free software from the Adobe website.