Today, Cargill opens its new corn processing plant in Castro, PR, a city 200km from the state capital, Curitiba. The facilities will produce starches and sweeteners. This is Cargill’s first plant in Brazil under the innovative biorefinery concept, which combines installations, equipment, and processes to convert biomass into refined products, in partnership with other companies around the site. Overall, more than R$500 million were invested in the project. 

The new plant will boost the company’s corn milling capacity in South America by 30 percent. The complex is one of Cargill’s biggest investments worldwide, which signals the potential of emerging markets like Brazil and other Latin American countries.

“Investment in the new Castro plant will help Cargill serve the needs of the Brazilian market and of other Latin American countries,” said Laerte Moraes, director of Cargill’s Starches and Sweeteners business unit.
The plant will employ directly 200 people and is located in an area of 352 hectares. It will serve the domestic market with solutions in starches and sweeteners for dairy products, candies, confectionery, beverages, bread, the paper and cardboard industry, and animal nutrition. Cargill’s facilities will occupy 2.5 hectares of the area above; the remainder will house customer companies under the biorefinery concept.

Ingredients produced at the Cargill plant will be supplied by pipe to these customer companies. Additionally, site utilities such as the sewage treatment station, water, and power may be shared by some of the companies installed in the area. Evonik is the first customer and partner in the complex and has already started building its plant. It is expected that by 2020 four partner companies will be installed in Castro. 

The new facilities have been operating in part since November 2013, and they can create as many as 800 new indirect jobs and boost business opportunities in the Castro area. “We have selected Castro because of the availability of raw material, proximity to customers, and logistic and infrastructure conditions,” pointed out Moraes. The site is located in Castro’s industrial district, which features a good road system and is close to the Port of Paranaguá.

The new plant will be opened by Cargill’s CEO, David MacLennan, and by its president in Brazil, Luiz Pretti. In the 2012/2013 fiscal year, Cargill earned worldwide revenues of $136.7 billion.