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Cargill to build soybean processing plant in MO
Cargill has announced it’s building a soybean processing facility in southeastern Missouri.
Cargill said the $450 million project in Pemiscot County will boost soybean meal and soybean oil processing to meet growing domestic food, feed and fuel demand.
Cargill said it plans to run more than 60 million bushels of soybeans through the facility yearly which Missouri farmer Aaron Porter says will raise the local soybean basis and open more business to come through the Mississippi River.
“They’re going to pull beans from all over southeast Missouri, Arkansas, Tennessee, southern Illinois,” Porter said. “It’s just going to be a boom for all soy producers in the area.”
The Missouri Soybean Association’s Gary Wheeler said creating value-added products and boosting local demand provides more market stability for U.S. farmers. He tells Brownfield it’s been a priority for the group since the trade war with China ‘rightfully’ scared the ag industry.
“Prices shot down and it really hurt us,” he said. “That was one of the first things that we set forth and set priority; taking care of us domestically, specifically in the borders of Missouri, and then out of state.”
The soybean processing facility is expected to be completed by 2026, creating 45 jobs.
Brownfield’s Tom Steever contributed to this article.
