L-R) Wesley Uhlmeyer, President, ADM Grain; Dale Hymel, Port COO; Paul Aucoin, Port Executive Director; Mike Landry, General Manger, ADM; Joseph Accardo, Attorney (representing the Port).
Archer Daniels Midland Company (ADM), one of the world’s largest agricultural processors and food ingredient providers, recently signed a long-term lease with the Port for its export facility in Reserve, Louisiana.
The company signed its 20-year lease, with a five-year renewal option, in April of 2018.
Port Executive Director Paul Aucoin said, “Hopefully we will have them occupying the grain elevator for the next 25 years.”
This lease renewal will continue to bolster the Port of South Louisiana’s status as the largest tonnage port in the United States and the 16th-largest in the world.
Aucoin said ADM’s lease will also continue to provide jobs to local residents, as it directly employs 106 people, in addition to 30 or so maintenance and construction workers at the facility.
Headquartered in Illinois, ADM has approximately 31,000 employees in more than 170 countries, and is one of the largest exporters in the South Louisiana region.
“We efficiently move millions of tons of U.S. crops every year to markets around the world,” said Jackie Anderson, a spokeswoman for ADM.
The storage capacity is 3.7 million bushels of grain, said Aucoin. Some of it is grown locally; much of it is grown in the Midwest.
The grain grown elsewhere is shipped down the Mississippi to the Port’s grain elevator.
Last year, Aucoin notes that 65,000 barges came through the Port; he said roughly 75 percent of them were carrying grain, which were shipped to seven grain elevators in the Port’s district.
From the Port, these elevators ship to over 90 different countries, he said.
The grain elevator sits on 34.07 acres of land, plus 22.2 acres of batture property at the Port’s Globalplex terminal. Aucoin said the Port district overall handled roughly 307 million tons of cargo, which means that the grain exports make up about a third of its total cargo.
“We are the largest exporter of grain in the United States. Last year, we had 101. 8 million tons of grain that left through the Port of South Louisiana,” said Aucoin.
Anderson points out that, “The Reserve export terminal has been part of ADM’s export network since 1993 and is a critical component to ADM’s industry-leading capabilities in the region.”
As for its global importance, Aucoin said, “I like to use the expression that we help feed the world, due to the amount of grain that we handle.”
ADM Grain Facility in Reserve, LA.
(Sitting L-R) Wesley Uhlmeyer, President ADM Grain, Paul Aucoin, Port Executive Director. (Standing L-R) Dale Hymel, Port COO, Mike Landry, General Manager., ADM Grain and Joseph Accardo, Attorney.
