John Miranowski and Helen Jensen, both Iowa State University economics
professors, have been studying issues that arise in the handling of
specialty crops. The research is funded by the U.S. Department of
Agriculture and the Agricultural Marketing Resource Center at Iowa State. To
help with the research, a survey was conducted in April 2003. Responses were
received from 380 of the 460 firms that handle grain in Iowa.

Officials at 68 firms said they handled one or more corn and soybean
specialty crops in 2002 or planned to do so in 2003. The highest number of
specialty crops reported by a single firm was seven, but the average was
about two. The most frequently reported specialty crops were high oil corn,
non genetically modified corn and non genetically modified soybeans.

One important issue for grain handling firms is the added costs of
differentiating products. On average, firms reported it cost about 32 cents
per bushel more to handle specialty crops than to handle commodity crops.
Interestingly, half of the 68 firms said they did not have to make any
additional capital investments before handling specialty crops.