Members of the Port of Grays Harbor leadership team attended the grand opening of Ag Processing Inc.’s (AGP) newest soybean processing facility in Aberdeen, South Dakota, earlier this month.

“It was a pleasure to be in Aberdeen, South Dakota, to celebrate AGP’s newest processing facility,” said Port Commission President Stan Pinnick. “We have long awaited the Aberdeen to Aberdeen connection and look forward to AGP’s success at the facility.”

The South Dakota facility, AGP’s 10th and largest, can produce about 80,000 tons of soybean meal a month, said Port spokeswoman Kayla Dunlap. Some of that will be coming to AGP’s Terminal 2 storage and export facility at the Port of Grays Harbor in Aberdeen. That won’t necessarily translate to an increase in the number of AGP trains coming to the Port.

“At this time, we don’t expect much increase in the total volume of soybean meal or trains from what we have seen in 2018 and 2019, but the mix of origination of trains will change once Aberdeen, South Dakota is up and running, since it is the closest AGP facility to Aberdeen, Washington,” said Dunlap.

Attending the grand opening from the Port of Grays Harbor were Port Executive Director Gary Nelson, Pinnick, Port Commissioner Phil Papac, Port Commissioner Tom Quigg and Port Deputy Executive Director Leonard Barnes.

AGP said it expected the South Dakota facility to begin commercial operations at the end of July. When fully operational, the facility will process over 50 million bushels of soybeans annually, according to the company.

Cal Meyer, AGP’s chief operating officer, said, “AGP built this facility to provide protein and oil to growing domestic and international markets. We will buy large volumes of soybeans in the area, supply soybean meal to regional feed mills, and load unit trains of meal destined for export markets in the Pacific Rim.”