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Farmers excited for ZFS Riga project

A southeast Michigan farmer says he’s excited to see what new ownership of a local corn ethanol plant can bring to the region after the facility has been idle for the past five years.

“If it could put 10-15 cents into our pocket that’s great, and it might supply some jobs for the local community too.”

Lenawee County farmer Jim Isley tells Brownfield he was an original investor in the facility near the Ohio border when it began operations in 2007.

“It was going to use all the corn produced in Lenawee County and it may not sound like a lot, but if you’re in Lenawee County, you’ve got a closer market, your trucking transportation costs should be a little bit lower,” he explains.

In 2019, Valero Energy idled the plant and it’s been sitting unused since.

This week ZFS Riga, a new affiliate of Michigan-based Zeeland Farm Services, announced it has purchased the 137-acre site which includes nearly 2.3 million bushels of grain storage.

The company says there are no immediate plans for it to resume ethanol production, but the grain receiving, storage, and shipping areas are being renovated.

Industry leaders have been advocating for the site to become a Sustainable Aviation Fuel production facility.

AUDIO: Jim Isley