SEMO Port adding corn milling plant

~ The $5 million project will employ about 60 people to start with.

Work has begun to prepare for the construction of a new business at the Southeast Missouri Port Authority, the first of its kind to be housed at the port.

Construction is set to begin within the week on facilities for SEMO Milling LLC, a food-grade corn milling plant. The $5 million project will sit on five acres leased from the port and will include a four-story concrete milling facility, bins for inbound corn, tanks for storage of the processed product and a two-story office building, said SEMO Port executive director Dan Overbey.

The port has never before housed a food processing facility.

The milling operation will be up and running within six months, employing 60 to start with on three shifts, seven days a week. Overbey said the deal has been in the works for a few years but the new company only recently put together all the pieces it needed to begin operations.

A concerted effort by the port, Cape Girardeau Area Magnet, the Missouri Department of Economic Development and the Scott County Commission helped bring the business to the port, the company said in a prepared statement.

The statement cites excellent rail, truck and barge access as the key reasons for putting the business at the port.

Seven businesses already are located the port: Girardeau Stevedores, Midwest Agri-Chemical, Consolidated Grain & Barge, Missouri Fibre Corp., First Missouri Terminals, Midwest Grain & Barge and Motive Rail, Inc.

The last business to enter the port was Missouri Fibre, which started operations two years ago, Overbey said.

Bringing SEMO Milling to the SEMO Port was helped by a $500,000 state transportation grant, part of which helped pay for street and rail improvements to service the new business.

SEMO Milling will purchase product locally, said Overbey, and will create food goods for domestic and foreign markets as well as competing for foreign aid contracts.

While the company won't use barge shipping in the beginning, Overbey said SEMO Milling has leased 400 feet of harbor frontage to expand to barge shipping operations as the company grows. The company has a 25-year lease at the port with an option to renew for another 75 years.

msanders@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 182