10 July 2008 - Today in Belo Horizonte, at Palácio da Liberdade, the seat of government of Minas Gerais state, representatives signed a letter of intent between Minas Gerais and Cargill Agrícola S.A., to start work on the expansion of the corn processing plant at the company's industrial complex in Uberlândia.
Among authorities attending the event were Aécio Neves, Governor of Minas Gerais state; Sérgio Rial, Cargill’s president for Latin America; Marcelo de Andrade, Director of the Starches and Sweeteners Business Unit; Odelmo Leão, Mayor of the Municipality of Uberlândia; Gilman Viana, Secretary of Agriculture of Minas Gerais state; and Rafael Andrade, Secretary of Economic Development of the State of Minas Gerais.
The R$112 million investment will increase corn-processing capacity at Cargill’s Uberlândia facilities by up to 70 percent. This will raise production levels of starches and sweeteners, in addition to other ingredients used by the food industry. Of the total amount to be invested, nearly R$53 million will be funded directly by Cargill and the remainder will be in the form of loans provided by the Minas Gerais Development Bank. The expansion will start immediately and is expected to be completed in December 2009. With this investment, Cargill will create 70 new direct and 700 indirect jobs.
“The increase means that Cargill will continue to meet its customers’ increasing needswhile consolidatingt its position as a leading supplier of solutions in starches and sweeteners segment,” said Marcelo de Andrade. According to Sérgio Rial, the state of Minas Gerais is extremely important for Cargill’s business in Brazil. “We invest in Uberlândia because the city is very attractive for Cargill and for Brazilian agribusiness. The region features a highly skilled and easily recruited workforce, and the city is enjoying a very healthy economy,” said Rial. According to Rial, since Cargill came to Uberlândia, it has received considerable support from the state and local government.
Once Cargill concludes the expansion of its corn-processing plant, it will be in an even better position to meet high customer demand both locally in Brazil and in part of the Latin American market.
Clean energy
All of the energy demand at Cargill’s Uberlândia plant is met by biomass produced from wood chips coming from planted and certified wood. Together with the upgrade of the corn-processing plant, the company plans an additional investment of R$80 million in energy cogeneration.
Cogeneration not only ensures energy self-sufficiency at Cargill’s Uberlândia industrial complex, it also provides environmental benefits to the process, because it uses raw material from a renewable source, such as the certified wood of planted forests. In addition to reducing emissions, this process also helps trap carbon as the trees grow.
Cargill in Minas Gerais
Cargill’s businesses in the state of Minas Gerais are the Soybean Complex, Starches and Sweeteners, Lubricant and Industrial Oils, and Ethanol.
Uberlândia is home to one of Cargill’s largest industrial complexes outside the United States, where the company is based. The company first came to this municipality in 1985 and today it employs 700 people in the processing and refining of soybeans, corn processing, acidulant production, and manufacturing of industrial and lubricant oils.
Cargill also has soybean and corn purchasing offices in other cities of the state of Minas Gerais, namely Almeida Campos, Campo Florido, Conceição das Alagoas, Frutal, Ibiá, Patos de Minas, Patrocínio, Perdizes, Planura, and Uberaba.
New investment – Growing worldwide demand for biofuels has been encouraging Cargill to invest in many countries since 1992. In Brazil, the company joined the sugar and ethanol industry in 2006, when it acquired equity stakes in Usina Itapagipe Açúcar e Álcool, located in the municipality of Atapagipe, Minas Gerais, and in Usina Central Energética Vale do Sapucaí (Cevasa), located in the state of São Paulo.
Starches and Sweeteners
The Starches and Sweeteners Business Unit operates in the food and industrial sector by processing corn and natural starches and producing powder whey and acidulants. In the food segment, it provides ingredients for candies and confections, beverages, milk drinks, fast foods, breads and others. For the industrial sector, it produces inputs for the paper, cardboard, chemical, fermentation and mining industries, among others.
The wet-milling corn-processing plant started operations at the Uberlândia industrial complex in 1990. In recent years, considerable investment has expanded grinding capacity, fitted and tailored the products to customer demands, raised productivity, developed technologies, and implemented quality-improvement and food-safety programs.
Corn processed at the plant comes mainly from Minas Gerais and other states in Brazil’s Center-West Region. The Uberlândia facilities employ a total of 350 people. The main products manufactured at the complex are food and pharmaceutical corn starch, special starches, corn syrup (glucose, maltose and dextrose), corn oil produced from germ and fiber and protein to animal feed.