Ribbon Cut for Largest Wheat Protein Plant in North America
Phillipsburg, Kansas, is about to be the home of the largest wheat protein plant in North America, with the capacity to use 20 million bushels of the grain per year.
The facility, which is a former Prairie Horizon Agri-Energy corn-based ethanol plant, is getting retrofitted and upgraded, at a cost of $350 million to become Amber Wave - a new subsidiary of Summit Agricultural Group.
Bruce Rastetter, founder and CEO of Summit Ag, said that the company scouted several different sites across various wheat growing regions over the span of years, but settled on Phillipsburg due to its ideal location in hard red winter wheat country.
The U.S. imports 80 percent of the vital wheat gluten used in baking, pet food production, and the booming aquaculture industry. Once operational, Amber Wave plans to produce about 109 million pounds of vital wheat gluten for use by these industries - first milling the wheat into flour, and then further processing it to convert the starch into ethanol, with the remaining wheat midds being marketed to area feedyards.
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