Small corn has a big pursuit - Cargill helps the development of the Songyuan corn industry

Source: Economic Daily

Jilin is located in the world's golden corn belt, and its corn planting area, output and processing capacity rank among the forefront of the country, and its advantages are obvious. How to make agricultural development more efficient and the value of the industrial chain higher? Cargill, a global agricultural and food company, recently announced that the new project of Sino-US Cargill Bio-high-tech Industrial Park will be put into production to help the cluster development of the deep processing of corn in Songyuan, Jilin Province.

Located in songyuan economic development zone, the industrial park covers a total area of 3.71 million square meters, relying on Cargill Biochemical Co., Ltd. as the core enterprise of the park, leading the rapid development of related enterprises in the area. As of June 2021, the park has settled 6 projects, the current investment of more than 700 million yuan, after the production of sales revenue is expected to exceed 2 billion yuan. A group of outstanding enterprises from Jilin, Hebei, Jiangsu and Shanghai gathered here. Enterprises in the park are not only closer to the production of raw materials, but also can obtain infrastructure, logistics, product innovation, food safety and other services from the park and Cargill.

Logistics, capital flow, information flow, personnel exchanges and other tangible and intangible flows, like veins and blood vessels, link the enterprises in the park into an organic whole. The industrial park responds to consumers' demand for health, green and environmental protection, promotes the deep transformation of corn into downstream products, and basically forms an industrial cluster with a complete chain and a sound system. The new projects that are put into production include Xuxin's 360,000 tons of corn germ crushing project, Aipu's 80,000 tons of caramel color project, Ruisheng's 60,000 tons of corn protein peptides, Aogu's 50,000 tons of trehalose project and Bio's 100 tons of β-niacinamide single nucleotide project, in addition, Jia'ao's 40,000 tons of erythritol project has been landed and is under intensive construction.

Liu Jun, President of Cargill China, said: "In the future, the industrial park will focus on building a characteristic industrial platform carrier, accelerating the agglomeration of characteristic industrial projects, and striving to build an industrial park 2.0. At the same time, we will tap the existing potential of the park and maximize every ton of steam and every ton of water. Everyone shares platform resources together, forms a shared industrial chain, makes more innovative corn, and makes nutritious and healthy corn. ”

The sustainable development of the corn industry requires the upgrading of the industrial chain and is inseparable from the escort of agricultural risk management. On June 17, Cargill and the United Nations World Food Programme launched a three-year integrated agricultural risk management pilot project in Songwon. Cargill will donate $1 million to the United Nations World Food Programme to reduce and eliminate risks to corn farmers. The project will also provide farmers with regular training in agricultural risk management each year.

Maha Ahmed, deputy country director of the China office of the United Nations World Food Programme, said the project is special in the use of financial instruments in agricultural insurance and futures markets, combined with the construction of infrastructure integrated with water and fertilizer, to increase corn production and stabilize farmers' incomes. Shao Yan, chief economist of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Affairs of Jilin Province, said: "The project will help explore a better agricultural risk management model and provide industrial support for rural revitalization. ”

"This year marks the 50th anniversary of Cargill's entry into the Chinese market, and this signing of the project marks Cargill's continued contribution to farmers' income, rural revitalization and sustainable agricultural development." Liu Jun said, "The Songwon plant is the third largest single factory in our corn processing enterprises in the world and the largest in Asia. As far as Cargill's global market is concerned, the China market is one of the fastest growing markets and has great potential. Chinese consumers are very open and receptive to new things, and China is a very important region for Cargill's future global investment. (Economic Daily-China Economic Network reporter Qu Lihua)