Expansion by AGP taps export markets
In the midst of harvest, fall sports and fluctuating fuel prices, the hottest ticket headed west this season might be a rail car destined for Terminal 4 at Grays Harbor on the Washington coast. AGP, a regional cooperative of CFE and more than 150 of its peers, celebrated the grand opening of the “T4” export facility in late July this year at the deep-water port near Aberdeen, Washington. Its completion marks a milestone years in the making and is a testament to the robust public-private partnership between AGP and the Port of Grays Harbor.
As soybean processing across the Midwest continues to grow, the completion of this project is very timely. Scaled-up production of soybean meal and oil, including AGP’s David City, Nebraska facility that began operating last summer, is generating new opportunities domestically and abroad for CFE customers. The export infrastructure at Grays Harbor will enhance delivery of soy products to customers overseas and help U.S. growers tap into expanding export markets.
“This is that kind of perfect scenario where all parties involved–government, public, private–all understood the value for the Midwest, for Washington state and for customers across the sea,” says Michael Dolch, AGP Director of Government Affairs.
Port Partnership
At more than $200 million in total investment, the expansion is the largest infrastructure project the port has ever completed. A state-of-the-art ship loader was added at Terminal 4 to improve vessel loading speed. A unit train at full capacity can be unloaded in roughly five hours. Soybean meal can now be transferred at the rate of 4,000 tons per hour from rail cars to ships.
In addition to vessel loading improvements, $60 million in public funds added more than 30 acres of cargo storage area for current and future use at T4, upgraded stormwater collection and treatment and added more than 47,000 feet of rail across the Port’s Marine Terminal Complex. The scale is massive, yet this project, like many of its kind, began with a simple request.
“What has grown into a really strong partnership actually started years ago with the Port of Grays Harbor requesting a letter of support for the early stages of T4 development,” Michael explains. “Those early conversations led to more and more collaboration.”
Support for the project surged as the scope continued to come into focus. From state soybean associations to the U.S. Soybean Export Council, momentum among stakeholders grew. The result demonstrates impact and opportunity: the new expansion of T4 provides the capacity to more than double agricultural commodity exports transferred through the port each year.
“A soybean harvested by one of our cooperative members in the Midwest can now be processed into meal and oil, transported by rail to Grays Harbor, loaded onto a vessel and delivered to customers across the Pacific through one of the most efficient agricultural supply chains in the world,” says Chris Schaffer, AGP Chief Executive Officer. “Every step of that journey creates value for our member-owner and strengthens the competitiveness of U.S. agriculture.”
Investing in Infrastructure
Since AGP loaded its first vessel through Terminal 2 at Grays Harbor in 2003, the journey from the field to the freighter has helped connect farmers to promising markets. The same is true today.
“Growing demand for soybean oil has been driving the need for additional processing capacity,” says Adam Piper, AGP Senior Vice President of Soy Processing. “That’s why our industry has grown by about 25% over the last three to four years. With that, there is still a strong, steady demand for the additional products being produced.”
Beyond the infrastructure at T4, the total expansion effort is also fortified by the AGP soybean processing and degumming facility in David City, Nebraska. The new facility, opened one year ago, receives approximately 15% of the state’s soybean crop and has a total processing capacity of more than 50 million bushels of soybeans per year and 700 million pounds of degummed oil per year. As reflected by their work ethic, AGP takes its responsibility to CFE customers to heart.
“We were up to full capacity at David City in about ten days after it opened, which was just tremendous,” Adam notes. “It’s a credit to the engineering team here and the contractors we work with. Everyone across the AGP organization, whether it was operations, human resources, accounting, merchandising, purchasing, traffic; a lot of time and effort was spent getting everybody onboarded.”
Success in the Supply Chain
The David City location is AGP’s eleventh soybean processing plant and boasts 13 miles of rail. The plant is equipped to load unit trains of soybean oil and soybean meal for maximum ease and flexibility. In July, the David City facility loaded and shipped the first-ever unit train of U.S. soybean oil. This milestone reflects ongoing investment in value-added agriculture and renewable fuels on behalf of AGP’s members, including CFE.
With the David City plant running smoothly at full throttle, AGP is strategically positioned as demand for soybean oil continues to climb. As a leader in soybean processing and biodiesel production, AGP’s expanded infrastructure will deliver products to biodiesel and renewable diesel markets with increased efficiency.
“We have more certainty now around state and federal biofuels policy than we’ve probably had in the past 15 years,” Michael says. “That’s really buoyed the market for soybean oil and renewable fuels overall.”
