TUSCOLA, Ill. (WAND) — Tuscola is a contender for a potential site of building a corn wet-milling plant.
FuFeng USA, Inc. which is based in China has been looking for sites in the United States and the Douglas County Community is being considered.
Brian Moody, Executive Director of Douglas County Economic Development Corp. says the site being considered is the former LyondellBassell plant.
The plant made synthetic ethanol and closed in the fall of 2021.
Moody said, the site clean up process was completed in summer of 2024. That is when the group began marketing that location.
According to Moody, FuFeng is looking for a location primarily in the Midwest.
If Tuscola is chosen for the location it would be a big boost to the local economy.
"This is really an opportunity for a facility to be based locally and then the local and regional economy to take advantage of the activity happening right here and then the product can then be turned around and sold back in our regional markets in the Midwest. So just providing another opportunity for our local farmers. I know the company is very much interested in wanting to deal directly with farmers as much as possible so I think that will be an attractive thing." said, Moody.
The proposal said, the plant would purchase 25 million bushels of corn each year.
Moody said, that is about 15 percent of the production in Douglas County and 6 surrounding counties.
"We are experienced with the project of this kind of size and impacts. So I think we feel good about being able to handle the demands of a project of this size." said Moody.
The plant would grind corn and ferment into amino acids which would be sold for cattle feed markets.
The company is still in the process of picking the site.
The final decision is expected to be announced in the spring.
If Tuscola is chosen, it would take about three years to finish construction.
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