Andy Joehl, “Cargill remains committed to Wahpeton”

Vice President of Trading and Merchandising for Sweeteners, Starches, and Texturizers North America Andy Joehl shared his thoughts about the history and relationship between Cargill and Golden Growers. He emphasized the importance of the ProGold facility to Cargill and to the community. He explained how over thirty years, corn yields have nearly doubled in the region and planted acres have quadrupled in the region.

Joehl credited those who had the vision and took the risk to build the ProGold plant back in 1995. “Cargill is fortunate to have been your partner.” According to Joehl, Cargill has employed roughly 120 people continuously since 1997. “We’ve been able to improve plant capacity by increasing the daily grind from 85,000 bushels per day to 93,000 bushels. On an annual basis, we purchase over 30 million bushels of corn from area producers. And while our partnership changes, our commitment to the facility and industry remains. Our relationship with area farmers continues as does our commitment to the community of Wahpeton.”

Joel then took time to outline the market environment for 2025. He explained how the corn market had been seeing positive signals with a sense of higher exports, a reduction in final 2024 carry out in the final WASDE report, and weather risks. Recently, however, prices have dropped off significantly due to a combination of port entry fees for Chinese built vessels, then Canada, Mexico, and China tariffs followed by Chinese and Canadian retaliatory tariffs. “We’ll have to see how this all plays out in the coming months.”