WASHINGTON: The Port of Olympia is set to welcome its first shipment of organic corn Wednesday, making it the first imported cargo at the marine terminal in more than a year.
The port used to regularly import ceramic proppants — also known as fracking sand — to supply the oil industry in North Dakota, but after oil prices plunged, the port’s last shipment of proppants was in January 2015.
The one-time corn shipment represents the potential for more business, Marine Terminal Director Len Faucher said Tuesday. Faucher said the Port of Longview was unable to handle the cargo, so four other ports, including Olympia, competed for the business and Olympia won it, he said.
“We had the equipment ready to go,” said Faucher about the terminal warehouse and crane. He also touted the labor force at the port. The 5,000 metric tons of corn, in bulk form, is to arrive Wednesday from Turkey aboard the Ozge Aksoy, a ship about the size as the log ships that frequently call on the port.
The corn is not bagged, so the port crane will scoop it up and drop it onto a conveyor belt that will carry it to the warehouse. It will be stored there before it is delivered by truck to farms in Washington state and British Columbia, where it will be used for animal feed.
The port’s customer is Sunrise Foods International of Saskatchewan, Canada. The privately held business was founded in 1997, according to the company website. “Our products include cereal grains (for milling) and feed grains (for livestock), as well as oil seeds and pulses, such as lentils and soybeans,” the website reads.
Faucher has been looking for new cargoes for the port since the demand for fracking sand slowed. Log exports have remained steady. The port also shipped more than 1,400 head of cattle to Vietnam in November.
Of the 1,427 dairy cows, 1,426 successfully completed the trip to Southeast Asia, he said. One cow broke its leg and had to be euthanized, Faucher said. The last time the port imported an agricultural product is thought to be cotton seed in 2001, he said.
