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>>> RiceBran Technologies Expands Mermentau, LA Facility to Meet Increasing Demand from the Rapidly Growing Companion Animal Market


Yahoo Finance

June 1, 2022


https://finance.yahoo.com/news/ricebran-technologies-expands-mermentau-la-120000824.html


Company Plans to Add Fifth Extruder to Expand Capacity for Companion Animal Market

TOMBALL, TX / ACCESSWIRE / June 1, 2022 / RiceBran Technologies (NASDAQ:RIBT) (the "Company") a global leader in the development and manufacture of nutritional and functional ingredients derived from rice and other small and ancient grains for human food, nutraceutical, pet care and equine feed applications, today announced the initiation of a capacity expansion of the Company's Core-SRB facility in Mermentau, Louisiana. The expansion is expected to increase capacity of the facility's SRB stabilizing capabilities, enabling RiceBran to meet growing demand for North American-sourced ingredients for the companion animal market.

The project which will be completed in the third quarter, will add a fifth extruder to the RiceBran's Mermentau, Louisiana facility. In addition to the additional extruder, RiceBran has also competed remediation of the company's warehouse and distribution facility in Lake Charles, Louisiana, after it was damaged in Hurricane Laura. Upgrades to this facility completed in this remediation will support the increase in capacity at Mermentau with enhanced logistics and loadout capabilities. The project at Mermentau, which is being executed by RiceBran's own internal engineering team, is repurposing equipment from one of RiceBran's other facilities and is expected the be completed at a minimal cost to the company, while the remediation of Lake Charles was entirely funded by insurance proceeds.

"These upgrades provide important redundancy and will allow our rice bran stabilizing facility in Mermentau to match the full capacity of our supply partner, who in turn has made investments over the past two years to minimize historical seasonal downtime," said core-SRB business lead Garry Primeaux. "Together, with the remediation and enhancement of Lake Charles, these factors add significant to overall capacity to our Louisiana operations, ensuring that we will be able to meet the rapidly growing demands of new and existing customers the companion animal market, with only a modest capital investment."

"The companion animal market is experiencing tremendous growth due to the high volume of people that acquired animal companions during the Covid epidemic," said RiceBran Chairman Peter Bradley. "This growth has been further accelerated by the popularity of companion animals in higher-demographic households, and these new owners' desire to feed their pets healthy and natural products. Combined, these factors are driving a structural shift in the industry toward stabilized rice bran ingredients, and we are able to respond. This relatively modest investment at Mermentau, along with the remediation and enhancement of our Lake Charles facility, provides RiceBran with a unique opportunity to capitalize on the current macro-environment."

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