The US agri-giant said it enhanced the facility in order to grow its operations in Eastern Europe.
"Production of sunflower seed in Ukraine has more than doubled in the last ten years, and this new facility will allow us to better and more efficiently serve our customers in this region," Anton Povkhan, ADM general manager of EU Softseed Crush, told us.
The upgrade to the processing facility has resulted in an extension of the production lines in seed preparation, the replacement of an extraction plant, and the installation of an additional biomass boiler, said ADM.
The company has also added switch capacity at the plant, which is located in Chornomorsk, formerly Illichivsk, to allow it crush rapeseed.
"Switch capacity allows us to optimize the crush types and rates in the facility depending on the harvest levels of each crop, current customer demand and the margin environment at any given point in time. This helps us run the plant as efficiently as possible to meet our customers’ needs," said Povkhan.
And he said the plant "will equally serve our food and feed customers in the region as we produce similar amounts of meal and oil products from sunflower seed and rapeseed."
Beyond the crush facility, ADM has a substantial presence in Ukraine, with more than 900 employees and a nationwide network that includes seven regional offices, six inland grain elevators, and a grain terminal at the port of Odessa.
German plant upgrade
In terms of its other European operations, ADM’s rapeseed crushing plant in Straubing in Germany saw similar switch capacity put in place in June this year – that facility can now process soybeans sourced from farmers in Bavaria, Baden Württemberg and Upper Austria producing under the Danube Soy GM free standard.
ADM wants to supply such certified GM free soy meal and oil to livestock producers in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.
René van der Poel, general manager of ADM Straubing, told this publication last year the group had noted an increase in production of non-GMO soybeans in the Danube region and growing interest in European grown soybeans from industry.
“So we have added switch capacity to connect those crops with the market. That allows us to process more than one crop at the facility, giving us the choice of which raw materials to crush based on demand from our customers and supply from farmers.
“We hope that providing farmers with an additional outlet for their soy crops will encourage non-GMO soy production,” he said.
This summer ADM said it was looking at further expanding its soy crushing options at other facilities in northwest Europe.
In June, Jon Turney, general manager, ADM European soybean crush, commented: “We see scale, due to the marginal cost per metric ton, as a key for our continued success as a destination soy crusher in order to ensure we are able to compete with origin crushers importing meal into the region.
“Adding switch capability to our plants allow us to utilize our assets more towards the protein markets when EU oil markets are under pressure. We believe we are best placed in our industry to further grow our crush capacities organically and keep our production costs in line with or lower than our origin crushing operations.”