World Grain - November 2024 - 30

NEW NAMA CHAIR
SEES OPPORTUNITIES
FOR MILLING
ADM Milling's Kruse also highlights risks ahead for sector
by Josh Sosland
T
he movement coursing through the food industry
toward offering consumers more sustainable,
healthful products presents rich opportunities for
the North American flour milling industry, said Tedd
Kruse, the newly elected chair of the North American
Millers' Association (NAMA).
In an interview with Milling & Baking News, a sister
publication of World Grain,
Kruse, president of ADM Milling
& Baking Solutions, Decatur,
Illinois, US, cited various industry
challenges ADM contended with
earlier in his career to explain his
confidence in the ability of milling
to thrive if it adopts a disciplined
approach to growth. The interview
was conducted Sept. 13 during
the NAMA annual meeting.
Kruse was elected NAMA chair
that same day by the organization's
board of directors.
A native of northeastern Iowa,
Kruse
Kruse grew up on a farm that
raised corn, soybeans, cattle and
hogs. In addition to farming, his
father was a sales manager for
MoorMan Manufacturing Co., a
feed manufacturing company (coincidentally acquired
in 1997 by ADM).
" Growing up I had a passion for agriculture, but my passion
wasn't strong enough that I wanted to be a farmer, "
he said. " I appreciated the importance of being a frontline
farmer. I studied agribusiness and finance with the intent
to go into either ag lending or commodity trading. "
Launches career at ADM
At Iowa State University, Ames, Kruse graduated with
an agricultural economics degree in agribusiness sales
and marketing. Opportunity came when ADM offered
Kruse a position as a commodity merchandiser. He be30
gan
ADM's intensive training program in 1993, moving
every few weeks over a nine-month period, gaining
exposure to a variety of ADM's grain storage, handling
and processing assets.
Longer stints followed at ADM's corn processing
complex in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, US, and then the company's
oilseeds facility in Red Wing, Minnesota, US, a
plant with roots dating back to ADM's 1902 origins as
a linseed oil producer. The Red Wing complex included
an oilseed refinery, mostly for industrial customers.
Kruse's work remained focused on the oilseeds business
when he took a position in 1996 at ADM's Decatur
headquarters. It was a period of expansion for soybean
and other oilseed crushing capacity, mostly to capitalize
on increasing global demand for soybean meal, he
said.The company added edible oil refineries during
that period, and Kruse joined the sales team.
" That's when I really got introduced to the food industry, "
he said. " I started selling all the varieties of
oils ADM produces, whether soybean oil, canola oil
or sunflowerseed oil, corn oil, predominantly to snack
makers and bakers, all the different uses for oil in
food applications. "
His work in sales led to opportunities to manage assets,
including assignments giving him profit-and-loss
responsibilities for certain assets, responsibilities that
broadened until he was promoted to vice president of
the oils group. In contrast to his early work centered
principally on the origination and processing of raw
commodities, his sales work gave Kruse experience in
" more of a value-added business. "
" One of the huge opportunities that transpired when I
was involved with the fats and oils business was when
the Food and Drug Administration came out with their
trans-fat labeling regulations, and that segued into the
trans-fat ban, " he said. " There were a lot of products we
made that utilized partial hydrogenation, which created
trans fats, which were really functional, but there were
issues with the products. We took advantage of the opportunity
to utilize the innovation at ADM to come up
November 2024 / World Grain / World-Grain.com
Photos by Sosland Publishing
http://www.World-Grain.com
World Grain - November 2024

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