Corn (maize) ports and hubs in North America
42 ports and hubs in North America handle corn (maize), across 12 countries: Canada, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, and United States. Grades: Yellow Corn (Maize) and White Corn (Food Grade, Non-OGM).
ExportImportCrushing / transitInland river
Open the interactive mapPrices, price history and the 5- and 10-year seasonal comparison are on the interactive map, with the source and date of every figure.
Grades
- Yellow Corn (Maize) (8.0% - 9.0%) - Energy-rich feed grain and starch feedstock. Massive imports into Iberian and Italian deficit clusters.
- White Corn (Food Grade, Non-OGM) (8.0% - 9.5%) - Identity-preserved white maize for dry milling into grits, semolina and arepa or tortilla flour. Certified non-OGM and segregated from field to mill. Grown on a far narrower base than feed maize and carrying both the non-GMO premium and the white varietal premium. Specified on flint content, colour purity and moisture.
Ports and hubs (42)
| Hub | Country | Type | Grades handled |
|---|---|---|---|
| Montreal Montreal St. Lawrence export port for eastern Canadian grain and for prairie grain transshipped from Great Lakes lakers into ocean vessels. | Canada | Seaport Export | Yellow Corn (Maize) |
| Puerto Caldera (Costa Rica) Caldera Costa Rica's main Pacific port and its main point of entry for cereals, with a dedicated grain berth run by Sociedad Portuaria Granelera de Caldera since 2015. | Costa Rica | Seaport Import | Yellow Corn (Maize) |
| Port of Cienfuegos Cienfuegos South-coast port and home of Cienfuegos Cereales, Cuba's largest mill, which grinds around 40% of the country's wheat flour. | Cuba | Seaport Import | Yellow Corn (Maize) |
| Port of Havana Havana Cuba's largest port. Cuba imports most of its wheat, maize, rice and soymeal; the state milling company has two flour mills in Havana. | Cuba | Seaport Import | Yellow Corn (Maize) |
| Port of Santiago de Cuba Santiago de Cuba Eastern Cuba's main port; its Tricontinental pier handles bulk sugar exports and bulk grain imports, and the city has a state flour mill. | Cuba | Seaport Import | Yellow Corn (Maize) |
| Port of Rio Haina (Dominican Republic) Haina The Dominican Republic's main bulk port, west of Santo Domingo. The country imports over 500,000 t of wheat and about 600,000 t of soymeal a year, nearly all its maize, and almost all of it from the US. | Dominican Republic | Seaport Import | Yellow Corn (Maize) |
| Port of Acajutla (El Salvador) Acajutla El Salvador's main port, on the Pacific. Its solid bulk imports are led by maize, soymeal, wheat and rice; the ALCASA terminal stores about 143,000 t in silos and warehouses. | El Salvador | Seaport Import | Yellow Corn (Maize) |
| Puerto Quetzal (Guatemala) Puerto San Jose Guatemala's Pacific port, where Terminal de Granos del Pacifico (Terpac) receives imported wheat, maize and soymeal for the country and its neighbours. | Guatemala | Seaport Import | Yellow Corn (Maize) |
| Santo Tomas de Castilla (Guatemala) Santo Tomas de Castilla Guatemala's Caribbean port on Amatique Bay, mainly a dry-bulk port for grain and fertiliser, with a small silo terminal. | Guatemala | Seaport Import | Yellow Corn (Maize) |
| Puerto Cortes (Honduras) Puerto Cortes Honduras's Caribbean port, handling about 90% of the country's sea trade, including its wheat, maize and soymeal imports. A dedicated grain terminal is being built. | Honduras | Seaport Import | Yellow Corn (Maize) |
| Port of Kingston (Jamaica) Kingston Jamaica's main port. The deep-water grain terminal at Kingston Wharves serves the island's two flour mills, Jamaica Flour Mills (ADM) and Jamaica Grain and Cereals. | Jamaica | Seaport Import | Yellow Corn (Maize) |
| Culiacan (Sinaloa) Culiacan Centre of Sinaloa, Mexico's main commercial white maize state, growing about 70% of the autumn-winter crop under irrigation. Also grows sorghum. | Mexico | Inland hub Export | White Corn (Food Grade, Non-OGM), Yellow Corn (Maize) |
| Port of Altamira Altamira Industrial port in Tamaulipas, one of the main Gulf entry points for US maize, soybeans and wheat into Mexico's north-east. | Mexico | Seaport Import | Yellow Corn (Maize) |
| Port of Coatzacoalcos Coatzacoalcos Southern Gulf port on the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, receiving bulk maize and wheat for south-east Mexico. | Mexico | Seaport Import | Yellow Corn (Maize) |
| Port of Lazaro Cardenas Lazaro Cardenas Deep-water Pacific port in Michoacan with rail links to central Mexico; mainly containers and bulk, including grain imports. | Mexico | Seaport Import | Yellow Corn (Maize) |
| Port of Manzanillo (Colima) Manzanillo Mexico's largest port by cargo, on the Pacific. Mostly containers, but it also takes a significant share of grain imports for Jalisco and the Bajio feed and milling industries. | Mexico | Seaport Import | Yellow Corn (Maize) |
| Port of Progreso (Yucatan) Progreso Yucatan's port at the end of a long offshore pier; Mexico's second grain import port, feeding the peninsula's poultry and pig industries. | Mexico | Seaport Import | Yellow Corn (Maize) |
| Port of Topolobampo (Sinaloa) Topolobampo Northern Sinaloa port serving one of Mexico's most productive farm zones. Exports wheat, sorghum and soybeans, and is being positioned for sorghum shipments to China. | Mexico | Seaport Export | White Corn (Food Grade, Non-OGM) |
| Port of Tuxpan Tuxpan Northern Veracruz port, the closest Gulf port to Mexico City, receiving bulk maize and wheat. | Mexico | Seaport Import | Yellow Corn (Maize) |
| Port of Veracruz Veracruz Mexico's main grain import port, taking around half of the country's seaborne bulk grain and most of its imported maize by ship, mostly from the US Gulf. | Mexico | Seaport Import | Yellow Corn (Maize) |
| Port of Corinto (Nicaragua) Corinto Nicaragua's largest port, on the Pacific, with a berth set up for grain and fertiliser. | Nicaragua | Seaport Import | Yellow Corn (Maize) |
| Bahia Las Minas (Panama) Colon Bay east of Colon on the Caribbean entrance to the Panama Canal, with a bulk grain terminal. | Panama | Seaport Import | Yellow Corn (Maize) |
| Cristobal (Colon, Panama) Colon Atlantic entrance of the Panama Canal. DEPSA runs the grain terminal at Cristobal, with a silo berth discharging maize and soybeans; soymeal, maize and wheat are Panama's main grain imports. | Panama | Seaport Import | Yellow Corn (Maize) |
| Amarillo (Texas Panhandle) Amarillo Centre of the Texas Panhandle, where wheat and sorghum are grown and the feedlots and dairies are among the largest in the US. The feed industry's demand outruns local crops, so maize arrives by rail from the Corn Belt. | United States | Inland hub Import | Yellow Corn (Maize) |
| Cedar Rapids (Iowa) Cedar Rapids One of the largest corn-processing centres in the world, in the heart of the Iowa corn and soybean belt, with Cargill and ADM corn wet-milling and soybean crushing plants. | United States | Inland hub Crushing / transshipment | Yellow Corn (Maize) |
| Chicago Chicago Delivery point for the Chicago Board of Trade corn, soybean and soft red winter wheat contracts, and the reference market for most North American grain pricing. | United States | Inland hub Inland river | Yellow Corn (Maize) |
| Decatur (Illinois) Decatur A major soybean crushing and corn processing centre in the Illinois corn belt. | United States | Inland hub Crushing / transshipment | Yellow Corn (Maize) |
| Fargo (Red River Valley) Fargo Centre of the Red River Valley in North Dakota and Minnesota, the main US region for hard red spring wheat, and a large soybean, maize and barley district. Grain moves by rail to Duluth and the Pacific Northwest. | United States | Inland hub Export | Yellow Corn (Maize) |
| Hutchinson (Kansas) Hutchinson Central Kansas terminal market in the hard red winter wheat belt, with large rail terminal elevators (Cargill Hutchinson East handles wheat, maize, sorghum and soybeans). Wheat moves by rail to the Texas Gulf. | United States | Inland hub Export | Yellow Corn (Maize) |
| Kalama / Longview (Columbia River) Kalama Deep-draft Columbia River export elevators downstream of Portland, loading corn and soybeans railed from the Midwest alongside Pacific Northwest wheat. | United States | River port Export | Yellow Corn (Maize) |
| Kansas City Kansas City The principal cash and futures pricing point for hard red winter wheat, on the Missouri River at the eastern edge of the southern Plains wheat belt. | United States | Inland hub Inland river | Yellow Corn (Maize) |
| Los Angeles / Long Beach (San Pedro Bay) Long Beach The biggest US ports for containerised grain: together they carry close to half of US waterborne container grain exports, led by DDGS and soybeans bound for Asia. | United States | Seaport Export | Yellow Corn (Maize) |
| Lower Mississippi / New Orleans New Orleans The largest grain export gateway in the United States. River elevators between Baton Rouge and the Gulf load ocean vessels from barges brought down the Mississippi, and carry the bulk of US corn and soybean exports. | United States | River port Export | Yellow Corn (Maize) |
| Minneapolis Minneapolis The principal pricing point for hard red spring wheat and durum, and the upper Mississippi barge head for northern Plains grain. | United States | Inland hub Inland river | Yellow Corn (Maize) |
| Omaha (Nebraska) Omaha Rail and trading centre for Nebraska and western Iowa maize and soybeans, on the Union Pacific main line to the Pacific Northwest and the Gulf; Nebraska is also a leading ethanol and DDGS producer. | United States | Inland hub Export | Yellow Corn (Maize) |
| Port of Corpus Christi Corpus Christi Texas Gulf port with a public grain elevator, shipping sorghum, maize and wheat from south Texas and the Plains; a main US port for sorghum exports. | United States | Seaport Export | Yellow Corn (Maize) |
| Port of Vancouver USA (Columbia River) Vancouver (WA) Deep-draft Columbia River grain port across from Portland, loading wheat, maize and soybeans that arrive by rail and barge from the Plains and the Pacific Northwest for Asian buyers. | United States | River port Export | Yellow Corn (Maize) |
| Portland (Columbia River) Portland Columbia River export elevators and the outlet of the Columbia-Snake barge system. The principal export route for soft white wheat to Asia, with hard red spring and winter wheat, corn and soybeans. | United States | River port Export | Yellow Corn (Maize) |
| St. Louis Harbor (Mississippi) St. Louis Where the Missouri and Illinois rivers meet the Mississippi; the harbor has the highest concentration of grain-barge loading capacity on the US inland waterways. Maize and soybeans go down-river to the Gulf export elevators. | United States | River port Inland river | Yellow Corn (Maize) |
| Tacoma / Seattle (Puget Sound) Tacoma Puget Sound export terminals shipping Midwest corn and soybeans, brought across by rail, to Asian markets on the shortest US mainland crossing. | United States | Seaport Export | Yellow Corn (Maize) |
| Texas Gulf (Houston) Houston Texas Gulf export elevators on the Houston Ship Channel, loading hard red winter wheat, corn and sorghum drawn from the southern Plains by rail. | United States | Seaport Export | Yellow Corn (Maize) |
| Toledo Toledo Lake Erie grain port handling soft red winter wheat, corn and soybeans from Ohio, Indiana and Michigan. | United States | Seaport Export | Yellow Corn (Maize) |