FDBusiness.com

Archer Daniels Midland Company, one of the world’s largest agricultural processors and food ingredient providers, will significantly expand overall grind and finishing capacity for sweeteners and starches at its corn wet mill facilities in Turkey and Bulgaria.

US-based ADM acquired full ownership of corn wet mills in Adana, Turkey, and Razgrad, Bulgaria, along with a 50% ownership stake in a corn wet mill in Szabadegyháza, Hungary, in November 2015, and has worked since then to achieve a smooth integration into the company’s global corn business. The plants produce a complete range of starch products, including liquid sweeteners, native and modified starches, crystalline fructose and dextrose.

In June 2016, ADM also completed the acquisition of a Casablanca, Morocco-based corn wet mill.

“We continue to see substantial opportunities for starch-based ingredients in Europe and Middle East markets, and, with these expansions, ADM will be well positioned to meet growing customer demand across the region,” says Pierre Duprat, president of ADM Europe, Middle East and Africa. “By increasing production capacity and expanding our capabilities, we are ensuring that we will be able to offer our customers an expanded range of sweeteners and starches as sugar production quotas in the EU expire, and as demand from food and paper markets in Turkey and the Middle East continues to grow.”

“One of our key strategic goals is to grow shareholder value through the expansion and diversification of our global corn footprint,” Pierre Duprat adds. “Our recent acquisitions in Turkey, Bulgaria, Hungary and Morocco all represent major steps in meeting these goals. And we are continuing our efforts to enhance returns on all fronts: In addition to enhancing production capacity, the improvements we have made in Turkey and Bulgaria will also improve operational efficiency at these facilities, increasing our domestic and overseas sales competitiveness.”

ADM is targeting completion of the projects in the first half of 2018.