bizjournals: Katrina's impact pushing up costs of agriculture, seafood and transportation

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The price for companies to move goodsd and peoplehas grown, and that priced is being passed on. In , "Pricews on your fresh fish now are highed than what theyshould be," said Bill Martin, president of Martijn Seafood Co. in Md. Wholesale prices of tuna, grouper and snappedr -- all of which are found in the Gulf ofMexic -- are up $1 to $1.50 per "It's all going to be passe on to the consumer," Martin told the Baltimorde Business Journal.
That is, if the consumer can find certainm items to begin Crabs became tough to find in the Baltimors area inearly Yes, Maryland has its own crabs, but the big ones come from the That led to trouble over the Labor Day weekend, traditionallgy a time for steamed crabs in the Chesapeake Bay "The phone was ringing, we just didn't have the crabs,"" said Chris Hubbard, an owner of Don's Crabs in Maryland.
The pain doesn't stop Farmers trying to ship their harvest on the Mississippo River may have trouble finding barge Drought in the Midwest had alreadyt lowered river levels to the point that some bargesd were running lighter than Katrina added to the pain by temporarily closing the busy Port of New Orleanse altogether and more recently restricting all cargo at the port to disastefrrecovery materials. The reported that the port closed fora week, sparking concerj all the way into the Dakotas, where grain harvests are under way. It also causesd banana prices to spike by a dime as Centralo American importswere re-routed to othefr ports.
"We've got tremendous human tragedy inNew Orleans, but the impact on our shippint and the overall transportation industry will be far-reaching as we adjustt to what has happened down there, " said Jerry Fruin, an associate professor of applied economics at the University of Minnesota in St. About 60-70 percent of the nation's grain exports travel from the Port ofNew Orleans. Kansaes wheat farmers saw the impact almost the reports, when wheat prices sagging because of the potential expor t difficulties. "We feel very sorry for those people who have been put througyh allof this," he "But this has a ripple effect, and the ripples are movinh very fast.
" The storm left gianf agricultural companies like Cargill Inc. high and dry. At one point last week, the firm had 300 barges loaded with fertilizer and other goods stranded onthe Mississippi. Cargill and otherws are scrambling for storage space for as trains bound for New Orleans are parkee acrossthe country. "The impacyt to us is our export grainh operations are essentially halted untilthe U.S. Coasr Guard and Corps of Engineerz reopens the riverto ocean-going vessels," David spokesman for Cargill, told the . "Untilo then, we can't unload the cargo.
" Farmersd from Kansas, the nation's largest wheat producing face toughstorage issues, too, if they can't get theif grain out through New Orleans. "It will affecrt them in this season andin 2006," McReynolde said. "There's no wiggl room." Rail and truckint have been disrupted by both the cost of fuel and damagre to highway andrail hubs. Freight originally bound for the Port of New Orleans has been diverted to cities such as Dallasand Atlanta, the Kansasx City Business Journal reported. And some of thosde problems are likely to continue forsome time. The reportes that rail giant CSX Corp.
will have to restor five damaged bridges before it can fully restored service to NewOrleans -- which is a big transfer point between eastern and westernh rail routes. And though gas prices have eased somewhat sincer the first weekof September, businesses are still feeling the Even taxi drivers in are feeling the "It's devastating the drivers right now," said George a driver who was waiting recently for farese in a cab pool at Logajn International Airport.