Agrana opens €100m wheat starch plant in Austria

Fruit, starch and sugar producer Agrana has opened its new €100m wheat starch processing plant at the site of its biorefinery in Pischelsdorf, Austria.

Wheat starch is used for producing noodles, bread and other bakery products. The new facility will see an increase in the company’s wheat starch production capacity and expand the number of jobs by 45 to a total of 250.

Agrana CEO Johann Marihart said: “After already investing €200m in the bioethanol plant and the first wheat starch production facility, we have now invested a further €100m in this second wheat starch processing plant.

“The increase in the overall processing capacity, from around 800,000t at present to 1.2 million tonnes of wheat, means that Pischelsdorf is taking on a leading position among large European starch production sites.”

The company said that its new, expanded wheat starch facility will have the capacity to process nearly 650,000t of wheat into 260,000t of wheat starch. It will also produce 50,000t of wheat gluten, 100,000t of wheat gluten feed and 35,000t of wheat bran.

Agrana’s Pischelsdorf wheat starch plant also includes a bioethanol facility. Combining these facilities will enable the cereals processed to be 100% usable.

Marihart further added: “We are proud of the biorefinery concept we have implemented here in Pischelsdorf. In the interests of a bio- and a circle economy, all the components of the cereals are used efficiently here.

“Pischelsdorf is, without doubt, a paragon of total resource utilisation and a shining example of a practically closed business cycle.”