World Grain - February 2011 - 76

RICE QUARTERLY

News Roundup
ConAgra Mills begins milling rice in Puerto Rico
OMAHA, NEBRASKA, U.S. — ConAgra Mills recently announced its entry into the milling of premium-quality rice for the Puerto Rican market through its Molinos de Puerto Rico business unit. Molinos de Puerto Rico will mill and package premium-quality, medium-grain rice in three-pound paper bags for the retail market. The state-of-the art milling unit has the capacity to produce 180 million pounds of packaged rice, offering new options for local retailers, food service operators and food processors. ConAgra Mills said the expanded capability for Molinos de Puerto Rico leverages and extends its current infrastructure to maximize efﬁciency and provide a competitive rice option for the island. Emphasis is placed on quality rice, automation and superior customer service, the company said. The new milling and packaging unit can also package rice into 20-pound plastic bags or bulk packaging in addition to 3-pound paper. “The added capabilities at our Molinos de Puerto Rico complex are an example of the innovation that our organization strives to deliver. By listening to and investing in the unique needs of the Puerto Rican market, we are better able to serve our customers not only in Puerto Rico but also in the surrounding area,” said Bill Stoufer, president of ConAgra Mills. “Our outstanding operational capabilities and scale make Molinos de Puerto Rico ideally suited to meet the need for premium rice with superior quality and customer service,” said Jon Stuewe, president of Molinos de Puerto Rico. “This is the next step in the company’s history of innovation in Puerto Rico. We’re proud of the contributions we’ve made to the food industry here and look forward to continuing to innovate for our customers.”

Rice

Bunge to purchase California rice mill
ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI, U.S. — Bunge North America, the North American operating arm of Bunge Limited, announced on Dec. 13 that it has agreed to buy the rice milling business of Paciﬁc International Rice Mills, LLC, a subsidiary of Anheuser-Busch, Inc. Financial terms were not disclosed. Paciﬁc International Rice Mills (PIRMI) produces bulk and packaged milled rice for domestic and export markets. The mill is located in Woodland, California, U.S., in the Sacramento rice-growing region, 20 miles west of the Port of Sacramento. “The purchase of PIRMI’s business supports Bunge’s strategy of expanding into adjacent value chains, and rice milling is a natural extension for us,” said Soren Schroder, president and chief executive ofﬁcer, Bunge North America. “Bunge is a leader in the corn dry milling industry, and success in the rice milling industry relies on many of the same strengths: commodity origination, efﬁcient milling operations, risk management, logistics and a customer-focused approach to business.” With an annual milling capacity of 363,000 tonnes, PIRMI sells to customers in the food service, food processing and export channels — the same channels that Bunge successfully serves through its grain, milling and oils operations. “PIRMI is a ﬁrst-rate facility with talented employees who have developed a successful business selling rice to external customers,” said Pete Kraemer, vice-president of supply at Anheuser-Busch. “In the process, our breweries have sourced more rice from other suppliers, as well as our rice mill in Arkansas. The sale of PIRMI will enable us to focus our rice milling operations on those used for our beers.” Bunge has been a supplier to Anheuser-Busch for more than 30 years, providing high-quality corn products for brewing. PIRMI will be among the suppliers Anheuser-Busch looks to for its rice purchases. “We are pleased to have this opportunity to deepen our relationship with Anheuser-Busch and we look forward to working with PIRMI’s employees, growers and customers to build on PIRMI’s strong foundation to create new markets and develop new products,” said George Allard, vice-president and general manager, Bunge Milling. “A number of factors point to continued demand growth for medium-grain rice including nutritional, demographic and dietary trends, and we are conﬁdent we can take advantage of these growth opportunities.” The plant currently operates with about 65 employees. Subject to its normal hiring procedures, Bunge intends to hire PIRMI’s employees.

February 2011 / World Grain / www.World-Grain.com

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World Grain - February 2011

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