AgBiz summer fellows explore grain supply chain from farm to export
Students gain hands-on experience in ag economics through U of I’s immersive summer fellowship
BY John O’Connell
Photos by John O’Connell; Video by Katie Hebdon and Garrett Britton
August 22, 2025
Roughly half of the wheat raised in the United States is exported abroad, and 60% of those foreign exports pass through the Columbia River system.
Representing seven universities, ten undergraduates participating in University of Idaho’s new AgBiz Summer Fellow program got a first-hand look at the vital role the river and its ports serve for America’s grain industry, while also witnessing operations at every link of the grain supply chain.
Offered under U of I’s Agricultural Commodity Risk Management program, the fellowship includes a two-week crash course in market concepts and logistics at U of I’s Moscow campus, as well as a week-long tour of the grain supply chain in Portland, Oregon, and five weeks devoted to a related research and Extension project.
The aim is to train future leaders for careers in agricultural economics, agribusiness and policy.
“The students understand how things work on paper, but this is a cornerstone piece. It’s a bridge between the classroom — what they learn on paper — with real-world applications,” said Professor Xiaoli Etienne, the program’s principal investigator and the Idaho Wheat Commission Endowed Chair in Commodity Risk Management.
The students understand how things work on paper, but this is a cornerstone piece. It’s a bridge between the classroom — what they learn on paper — with real-world applications.
Xiaoli Etienne
Program principal investigator and Idaho Wheat Commission endowed chair in commodity risk management
Touring Portland
A highlight of the Portland trip was the opportunity to cruise the Columbia River aboard a tugboat, used by Shaver Transportation Co. to berth ships, guide barges and provide vessels with emergency escorts. Other Portland area field trip stops include the Port of Portland, Columbia Grain, the Wheat Marketing Center, U.S. Wheat Associates, the Oregon State University (OSU) Food Innovation Center, Marsee Bakery, Bonneville Dam and United Grain Corp. The group also headed to Astoria, Oregon, to tour the OSU Seafood Lab and the Columbia River Maritime Museum and made a stop in Warden, Washington, at Viterra Oilseed Processing.
Bill Flory, ’76, College of Business and Economics, served as chairman of the Wheat Marketing Center for a decade and offered his connections with top officials in the industry to help make the tour possible. Flory is a fourth-generation farmer who has a diverse crop rotation in northern Idaho’s Camas Prairie. Flory is confident the contacts students made through the program will result in internships, job offers and a broader professional network from which they can draw professional support.
“Even if they don’t end up in agriculture directly, seeing the top-flight decision makers they get to be with for a few days is a rare opportunity for these students,” Flory said. “It’s not just a one-way interface. Industry likes to see the future leaders and get to know them and be involved with them after the program is over.”
Vandal Explorer: AgBiz Summer Fellowship
Katie Hebdon, a recent graduate of the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences, documents a tour of the grain industry in the Portland area as part of a new summer fellowship offered through University of Idaho.
Research and Extension projects
Students drew from what they learned in the program to develop research and Extension projects, which they completed following the tour, working under a program mentor. Mentors include Etienne, Flory, and U of I agricultural economists Andres Trujillo-Barrera, Hernan Tejeda, Norm Ruhoff and Brett Wilder.
Connor Wells, a program participant from Meridian who will graduate from U of I in August 2025 with a bachelor’s in agricultural economics, chose his Extension project topic based on what he learned from a guest speaker who addressed the class in Moscow. The speaker explained how prices of cocoa and coffee have doubled during the past several months. Wells opted to evaluate market fundamentals to determine if the price hikes of cocoa, coffee and a few other commodities are justified or if the rapid increase represents an unsupported price bubble.
“I wanted to do something that would introduce me to things I would be doing in graduate school, such as econometrics,” Wells said, referring to a branch of economics that applies statistical methods and mathematical models to analyze economic data. “I wanted to get a head start on that.”
Nicole Xiao, a senior from Moscow majoring in climate systems science at New York-based Columbia University, was intrigued by a presentation from a Columbia Grain Corp. trader who specializes in pulse crops. Xiao chose to write an overview of the pulse industry, planning to submit it for publication in peer-reviewed journals and for an Extension bulletin.
Etienne and her team will begin recruiting their next class in late fall 2025, and the deadline for applications will be March 25, 2026.
Participants receive a $5,015 stipend and a $600 travel allowance, plus costs of the Portland trip are covered. Some schools also award internship credit to participants.
The eight-week, paid summer fellowship, hosted from mid-May through mid-July, is funded with a five-year, $750,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture.