Low water levels at Mississippi River affect farmers, soon your wallet

TUNICA, MS. — Prices at the grocery store could increase if the Mississippi River water levels continue to drop and cause havoc for farmers.

As FOX13 found out, moving the grain alone has been a challenge and as long as that continues the tougher it could be for all of us at the store.

Farmers are having to wait four to five hours to transfer grain into the elevators.

RELATED: Dropping Mississippi River levels affect your wallet

It’s an unprecedented scene outside a grain elevator on Mhoon landing road in Tunica County. Large lines of traffic, trucks loaded with soybeans, and farmers trying to get their goods dumped, on barges, and shipped out.

Many farmers and drivers said they can’t get their grain to barges at any other grain elevator because the water is too low.

”They tell me they are closed in Memphis and in Friars point and in Greenville and in Rosedale because of the river,” Melvin Young a truck driver delivering soybeans to a grain elevator said.

Ag Economy experts couldn’t tell us when it will affect consumers, however, if the beans which are used in cattle feed, catfish feed, pork, and poultry feed have a huge delay, then those items could increase in price.

”Well if the farmers can’t get the crops out then it will mess up everything, food prices will go up, fuel prices will increase,” Ward Corbin of lambert said.

“The barges, the river is so low you can’t move the barges right now so without those barges moving these beans can’t leave and if they can’t leave we can’t bring them in,” Henry Thompson of Sledge said.

”I been here since 6:30 and I bet I probably haven’t moved a foot,” Jerry Jones of Crenshaw said. Henry Cole of Tunica County drives soybeans to barges for a local farm, he tells us he’s waited as long as 9 hours to drop off one truckload.

”It has been smooth in the past we go out and we pick up grain and dump and pick up grain and go back and dump and everything goes smooth,” Jones said.

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