Organic corn prices are steady in the mid-West, but transportation is driving up the prices on the coasts. Merchandisers tell Fastmarkets/The Jacobsen that trucking prices are offered as high at $5 per load per mile, with an average price closer to $4 per mile. Organic corn prices on the West Coast are reported as higher as $455 per short-ton. Most of the corn that goes to the West coast leaves from Western Iowa and Eastern Nebraska and goes by rail about 1,500 miles from its destination. Trucking this distance would make the prices prohibitive (adding more than $6 per bushel).

Train rates have helped buoy prices, and when renewals come due, there is a possibility that prices will be higher. A railcar from the Western mid-West to the West Coast currently reflects the price arbitrage between organic corn prices at $12.75 and organic corn…