Global agribusiness giant Louis Dreyfus Company (LDC) is building a soyabean processing plant in Upper Sandusky, Ohio.
The facility would offer integrated crushing, vegetable oil refining and lecithin production and packaging capabilities, the company said on 20 October.
“This … development will further strengthen LDC’s core merchandising capabilities with additional capacity to originate and process US soy[abeans] into value-added products – in this case edible oils and lecithin,” LDC CEO Michael Gelchie said.
LDC said the new plant would also provide it with an option to enter the renewable energy feedstock market to help meet growing demand for biofuels.
“Reflecting our long-term commitment to North America as a key market for LDC, both in terms of origination and distribution, this new facility will leverage LDC’s existing regional logistics network and synergies with our other integrated oilseed processing facilities in the region,” LDC’s US Head of Grains & Oilseeds Gordon Russell said.
With construction scheduled to begin early next year, the new facility would over 100 have a soyabean crushing capacity of 1.5M tonnes/year, annual edible (RBD) soyabean oil production capacity of 320,000 tonnes/year and lecithin production capacity of 7,500 tonnes/year.
LDC has recently expanded its crushing, biodiesel refining, and glycerine and lecithin production complex in Claypool, Indiana, USA, and is currently expanding its canola processing plant in Yorkton, Saskatchewan, Canada.
