Agricultural Cooperative Landus to buy ADM’s Iowa grain facility

USA – The farmer-owned agricultural cooperative, Landus, has signed an asset purchase agreement to acquire ADM’s grain facility in Manilla, Iowa at an undisclosed sum, set to take possession as from 1 June 2018.

As part of the agreement, Landus Cooperative gains more than 2.3 million bushels of grain capacity for its first wholly-owned Crawford County, Iowa location including 775,000 bushels of upright storage, more than 1.5 million bushels of bunker storage and 32,000 bushel per hour receiving capacity.

“This Manilla, Iowa, site is a strategic purchase for Landus Cooperative and farmers in western Iowa,” explained Milan Kucerak, chief executive officer for Landus.

“While this grain asset has been well cared for, we expect to improve efficiency on behalf of the customer by utilizing best practices from our nearly 60 grain locations in Iowa.

“Our domestic and international grain end-users continue to demand high-quality corn and soybeans, and we know Crawford County, Iowa farmers can help meet that demand.”

As a result, ADM and Landus will honor all outstanding grain contracts and plans to work with growers to enhance a smooth transition.

ADM customers will benefit from Landus’ many marketing alternatives and opportunities in the grain industry.

While ADM currently ranks second in North American grain storage capacity with 468,465,850 bushels, Landus Cooperative ranks sixth with 174,199,000 bushels, according to 2018 Grain & Milling Annual by Sosland Publishing.

Landus Cooperative is a farmer-owned agricultural cooperative headquartered in Ames, Iowa, that has a global reach and has approximately 7,000 member-owners.

It was formed in April 2016 when existing members of Farmers Cooperative Co., Ames, IA, and West Central Cooperative (WCC), Ralston, IA, formally announced plans to merge their operations into a single entity called Landus Cooperative.

In March this year, the company embarked on a US$13.7 million to build a new grain facility in Iowa, US including grain bins, receiving pits, a scale and an office building.