Cargill recently announced plans to expand its portfolio at its starches and sweeteners plant in Krefeld, Germany, with advanced biofuels, vegetable wheat protein and industrial wheat starches. The expansion to a wheat processing facility allows Cargill to help customers address changing consumer needs involving nutrition, packaging and sustainable fuel.

The transformation, expected to be completed by 2020, is a part of Cargill’s long-term strategy to broaden its product portfolio and address evolving consumer needs. “Diversifying Krefeld's product portfolio will allow Cargill to address changing market trends like the increasing demand for vegetable proteins driven by a growing world population and the rising need for industrial starches used in packaging paper,” says Alain Dufait, Cargill Starches & Sweeteners Europe Managing Director. “This will enable us as well to explore the opportunity to manufacture advanced ethanol, produced from low-value streams.

“In order to diversify the portfolio, we will need to transform our Krefeld site from a corn processing facility to a wheat processing facility. We believe such a transformation will help to improve Cargill Starches & Sweeteners Europe's competitiveness, position the business for future growth and allow it to sustain its market leadership.”

European institutions are defining the future legislative framework post-2020 of the renewable energy market across the country. Cargill is looking to stay ahead of the trend and provide ethanol for Europe’s evolving market, says Dufait. “In particular, regarding the decarbonization of the transport sector, there is an overall support of the deployment of advanced biofuels, waste-based fuels and renewable electricity. In this context, Cargill is exploring the opportunity to manufacture and offer our customers advanced biofuels produced from low-value streams.”

Cargill Starches & Sweeteners Europe processes corn and wheat to manufacture a comprehensive collection of value-added products dedicated to the food and beverage, papermaking, corrugating, BioIndustrial, pharmaceutical, personal care and animal nutrition industries.