CN Launches Five-Railroad Grain Service to Central Mexico

MONTREAL/MEXICO CITY – Canadian National Railway (CN), Grupo Mexico Transportes’ Ferromex and Ferrosur, and Genesee & Wyoming’s Huron & Eastern Railway (HESR) and CG Railway LLC have jointly launched a cross-border grain logistics product called America’s Harvest. The service, announced in June 2025, consolidates five rail operators under a single commercial framework to move agricultural freight from Midwestern U.S. origins to destinations in central and southern Mexico. No launch date or volume commitment was disclosed by the consortium.

What Is the Full Scope of This Development?

The America’s Harvest service bundles rail haulage, documentation handling, import/export compliance, and final-mile delivery into one coordinated offering for grain shippers targeting Mexican markets. CN provides the Canadian and U.S. network reach from the Midwest, HESR feeds originating grain across Michigan and the eastern Corn Belt, CG Railway operates a rail-ferry link across the Gulf of Mexico between Mobile, Alabama and Coatzacoalcos, Veracruz, while Ferromex and Ferrosur handle the Mexican inland distribution to central and southern consumption zones. The consortium stated the objective is reducing the number of counterparties a shipper must negotiate with from as many as five to one.

Key Development Data

How Does This Compare to Industry Trends?

Cross-border rail grain movements between the United States and Mexico have grown consistently over the past decade. Mexico imported approximately 24.4 million metric tons of U.S. grain and oilseeds in the 2023–2024 marketing year, with rail accounting for roughly 45% of cross-border agricultural freight tonnage, according to USDA Foreign Agricultural Service data. The America’s Harvest model — in which a Canadian Class I serves as the lead commercial face for a Mexico-destined grain corridor — departs from the more common bilateral U.S.-Mexico rail interchange frameworks used by Union Pacific and BNSF at border gateways like El Paso, Eagle Pass, and Laredo. CG Railway’s Gulf of Mexico rail-ferry service, which bypasses congested Texas land-border crossings entirely, provides an alternate routing lane that the consortium is leveraging as a competitive differentiator. Note: Independent verification of shipper uptake and contracted grain volumes was not available at time of publication.

Editor’s Analysis

America’s Harvest signals a structural shift in how North American grain logistics are being packaged — moving from fragmented, shipper-assembled routing to an integrated product sold by a coalition of carriers. The inclusion of CG Railway’s rail-ferry link positions the service to compete directly with all-rail routes through Laredo and Eagle Pass, where dwell times and customs queueing have periodically disrupted agricultural supply chains. This consortium approach aligns with the post-USMCA trade environment, where Mexican food processing and livestock sectors have deepened their reliance on U.S. feed grains. (Source: USDA Foreign Agricultural Service, 2024) The absence of disclosed pricing terms and volume commitments suggests the service may currently be operating as a commercial trial phase rather than a fully contracted corridor product.

FAQ

Q: What grain commodities does the America’s Harvest service cover?
A: The consortium has not published a restricted commodity list. The service is designed for bulk grain shipments from the U.S. Midwest, which typically include corn, soybeans, wheat, and sorghum destined for Mexican feed mills and food processors. Specific eligible commodities should be confirmed directly with CN or participating carriers.

Q: How does the Gulf of Mexico rail-ferry segment affect transit time compared to all-rail border crossings?
A: CG Railway’s Mobile-to-Coatzacoalcos ferry crossing takes approximately 3–4 days port-to-port, compared to variable land-border dwell times that can extend 24–72 hours at congested Texas gateways. Total end-to-end transit from Midwest origins to southern Mexico via the ferry route has not been publicly benchmarked by the consortium.

Q: Will this service be available to non-U.S. grain origins, such as Canadian prairie grain?
A: This has not been officially confirmed. CN’s involvement suggests Canadian-origin grain could theoretically be routed through the same corridor, but the initial announcement focused exclusively on Midwest U.S. origins moving to central and southern Mexico.