Last year’s drought has cast a long shadow on wheat exports from the Port of Portland, whose grain handling volume has fallen by 50% in 2022. “You can’t ship what you don’t have,” said Kurt Haarmann, senior vice president of the grain division for Columbia Grain. The 2021 drought’s impact on production in the northern U.S. wheat-growing tier was the most severe seen in more than 30 years. The company’s export facility at the port’s Terminal 5 is more wheat-dependent than others in the area, which handle more corn and soybeans, and so was particularly hard-hit by the dry weather. Total tonnage handled by the port’s marine division has declined more than 5% in the current fiscal year, with grain cargo seeing the biggest decrease of nearly 50%, according to a recent report.