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New Michigan Sugar facility doubles molasses processing

A new processing facility is helping Michigan sugarbeet growers capture additional returns from the same acres.

Michigan Sugar Company’s Rob Clark tells Brownfield a Molasses Desugarization Facility at the company’s Bay City site is extracting additional sugar from what was previously a byproduct used for animal feed.

“We are going to produce 80 million additional pounds of sugar without planting another acre of sugarbeets,” he says.

Clark says the $109 million plant is the single largest investment the cooperative has made and is expected to make a generational impact on its farmer members.

“It’s expected to add about $18 million a year to their beet payment over the next 10 years annually, so very significant for our grower owners in terms of a return on their investment,” he says.

The new facility is expected double the cooperative’s molasses processing capacity.

Clark says the facility has been operational since May and was recently celebrated as part of a ribbon cutting ceremony.

AUDIO: Rob Clark, Michigan Sugar Company

Photo courtesy of Michigan Sugar Company.