Miller Magazine Issue: 118 October 2019

24 NEWS MILLER / OCTOBER 2019 ADM opens the largest flour mill in North America Archer Daniels Midland Company (ADM) celebrated the opening of its new, state-of-the-art flour mill in Mendota, Illinois. It is the largest flour mill ever built from the ground up in North America. “Our growth investment to design and build a cutting-edge production facility from the ground up highlights our commitment to growth for our customers, our shareholders and the state of Illinois,” said Kevin Like, pres- ident of ADM Milling. “This high-tech mill offers unparal- leled advantages, including the most up-to-date monitoring and quality-control equipment; swift and efficient packing and transportation options; and the ability to mill a wide ar- ray of wheat varieties to ensure we are meeting the needs of all of our customers across the Midwest.” The new, 30,000 cwts mill can mill spring, winter and soft wheat varieties plus two types of whole wheat. The mill features: A loop track with 110-car shuttle rail unloading capaci- ty. Three milling units with centralized monitoring to ensure performance, consistency and security of supply. Three bulk truck load-outs and rail load-out capability. A high speed packer and 30,000-square-foot warehouse. A brand new lab with the most up-to-date quality-control equipment. An onsite transportation company, including a truck wash and an advanced truck facility utilizing RFID technology to en- sure efficiency and accuracy. “ADM has a long history of leading-edge innovation,” said Chris Cuddy, ADM senior vice president and president, Carbohydrate Solutions. “We are committed to setting the standard for technological innovation in our industry, from our unparalleled food and beverage ingredient portfolio, to our array of probiotics and other health-supporting ingredi- ent offerings, to our growth investments in efficient, sustain- able production facilities like the one in Mendota.” Kazakhstan sets sight on increasing its wheat exports to China Kazakhstan could potentially more than triple wheat ex- ports to China, Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev said during the sixth meeting of the Kazakhstan-China Business Council in Beijing. Kazakhstan, Central Asia’s largest grain producer, and Russia, one of its main compet- itors in wheat exports via the Black Sea, have long sought to sharply increase wheat and other agricultural exports to China. Kazakhstan is one of the top 10 wheat-export- ing countries and 2018 wheat exports to China reached 550,000 tonnes. “We can increase these volumes 3.5 times to two million tonnes. We are ready to export dairy products, poultry, beef, lamb, pork, flour, cereals, legumes, and oilseeds to the Chinese market. We plan to increase the production and export of organic food to China,” the President said at the council meeting took place on 11th September. Kazakhstan traditionally exports most of its grains to neighbouring Central Asian countries, Afghani- stan, the Caucasus and further west through the Black Sea ports. Russia, the world’s largest wheat exporter, expects China to open its market for imports of wheat produced across all regions of Russia within a year. Kazakhstan had a record high wheat harvest in 2018 and exported 4.9 mil- lion tonnes of wheat. The country plans to export 2.2 mil- lion tonnes of wheat this year.