Besides being the newest flour mill in the United States, the Ardent Mills flour mill built along the Gulf coast in metropolitan Tampa, Florida, US, has several details that set it apart. Advanced analytics, state-of-the-art equipment, unusually large grain storage capacity and unique supply chain capabilities are among the mill’s distinguishing features.

At 17,500 cwts of daily flour milling capacity, the Port Redwing mill is not Ardent Mills’ largest and is not among the 25 largest flour mills in the United States. With the capacity to receive large quantities of wheat, though, Ardent Mills constructed a large grain elevator at the Port Redwing mill, with 4.1 million bushels of storage capacity.

The elevator may be the largest ever built concurrent with the construction of a US flour mill and, according to the 2022 Grain & Milling Annual published by Sosland Publishing Co., it is the sixth largest elevator of any US flour mill currently operating. The concrete elevator includes 12, 50-foot-concrete bins with 300,000 bushels of grain storage apiece as well as a number of smaller grain bins.

After two years of disruption due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the International Association of Operative Millers (IAOM) returned to an in-person spring Annual Conference & Expo in Richmond, Virginia, US. More than 700 people are in attendance for the event, which is May 2-6.

Alicorp SAA, Peru’s largest flour miller and a company with wide-ranging business interests, has expanded its flour production capabilities by nearly 50% at its plant in the Callao district near Lima, the nation’s capital.

The nine-floor, 1,700-square-meter plant now can produce 1,580 tonnes of flour (wheat equivalent) per day, an increase of 500 tonnes. The expansion, which was executed in existing space inside the building, includes a new milling line that features fully automated Bühler equipment.

The project included the installation of 35 Bühler roller mills, 3 plansifters, an automated bagging carousel and an optical grain sorter.

Other highlights of the project are the erection of wheat storage silos, the installation of concrete silos for wheat conditioning, and a truck filling station for flour and byproducts.

KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI, US — The Grain Elevator and Processing Society’s GEAPS Exchange 2022 got underway March 26 at the Kansas City Convention Center in Kansas City, Missouri, US, with the first full day on the expo floor March 27.

With manufacturers, suppliers and customers from across the globe filling the convention center and making connections, here are some more photos from the expo from March 27 and 28.

The March 26-29 event features 45 hours of educational programming, special events and an expo with the latest grain handling and processing solutions.

Photos: John Reidy/World Grain

KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI, US — The Grain Elevator and Processing Society’s GEAPS Exchange 2022 got underway March 26 at the Kansas City Convention Center in Kansas City, Missouri, US, with the first full day on the expo floor March 27.

The March 26-29 event features 45 hours of educational programming, special events and an expo with the latest grain handling and processing solutions.

With manufacturers, suppliers and customers from across the globe filling the convention center and making connections, here a few photos from the expo’s first day.

Photos: John Reidy/World Grain

GEAPS Exchange returns to the Midwest and its normal time of year in 2022, following the COVID-19 pandemic. The event is March 26-29 in Kansas City, Missouri, US, and features 45 hours of educational programming, special events and an expo with the latest grain handling and processing solutions.

Following are products and services from World Grain advertisers who will be exhibiting at GEAPS.

This year’s World Flour Day is planned for March 20 and will be celebrated under the motto “Flour and People-Flour means the world to us.” The focus for this third World Flour Day is the significance of flour for each person. 

World Flour Day was initiated by the FlourWorld Museum to honor flour as one of the most important staple foods. The FlourWorld Museum in Wittenburg near Hamburg, Germany, holds the world’s largest collection of flour sacks, with more than 3,700 sacks from 140 countries. Flour.Power.Life is the guiding principle under which the sacks tell about the traditions, history and myths of flour.

As part of World Flour Day, the museum will unveil the Flour Sack of the Year, celebrating a flour sack design that best illustrates this year’s motto. Winners are displayed in the museum, an initiative of Mühlenchemie, a member of the Stern-Wywiol Gruppe.

In honor of World Flour Day, here are six previous Flour Sack of the Year honorees.

The top 10 largest United States wheat-durum-rye milling companies in total daily capacity (cwts) as listed in Sosland Publishing Co.’s 2022 Grain & Milling Annual.

The publication is a comprehensive directory of companies involved in the North American grain and flour milling industries and of the companies that supply products and services to those industries.

Total daily US capacity was 1,530,398 cwts for wheat flour, 132,223 cwts for durum and 9,870 cwts for rye, less 25,820 cwts swing capacity for a total of 1,646,681 cwts.

The Grain Majors for Sosland Publishing Co.'s 2022 Grain & Milling Annual comprise the top North American facility grain companies and cooperatives based on total corporate grain storage capacity. 

To qualify for the Grain & Milling Annual list, companies must have two or more facilities and total storage capacity of at least 6 million bushels. in 2022, there were 103 such companies. The Top 10 companies each exceeded 150 million bushels of storage.

Total corporate storage capacity includes country elevators and may not necessarily equal the sum of individual facility capacities listed in the directory. Total corporate capacity also may include storage at processing plants, which may or may not be listed in the directory.

ATLANTA, GEORGIA, US — The International Production & Processing Expo (IPPE) has returned to an in-person event with a feed program that will focus on regulatory changes and provide an industry outlook for 2022. The Jan. 25-27 event is at the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta, Georgia, US. 

The 2022 IPPE will include a full week of education programs, including new technology, events on the show floor and networking opportunities with key leaders from the animal food, meat and poultry industries. The event brings together the expertise from the American Feed Industry Association, the North American Meat Institute and the US Poultry & Egg Association.

Despite the challenges from the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, suppliers in the grain handling and storage and milling industries continued to innovate and introduce new products and services. Here a few that are highlighted in the 2022 International Buyers Guide.