Columbia Grain International (CGI) Chief Executive Officer Jeff Van Pevenage, whose career in the grain industry spans 34 years, has never seen a more challenging business environment than the one he and other grain company executives around the world have encountered in recent years. Since 2020, they have dealt with a once-in-a-lifetime global pandemic that forced companies to alter the way they conducted business, geopolitical turmoil in the Black Sea region and other parts of the world that has altered traditional trade flows and caused significant market volatility, and a prolonged period of global inflation and high interest rates not seen since the 1980s. Adding to the angst in recent weeks has been a series of events that have made shipping grain in an efficient manner difficult. Low water levels due to drought have limited the amount of grain flowing through the Panama Canal.