Agrana opens wheat starch processing facility in Austria

Austria-based food company Agrana has unveiled a new €70m wheat starch processing facility at its site in Pischelsdorf, Austria.

With the opening of the new facility, the company has expanded the existing range of starch-based products at the site to include wheat starch, in addition to the existing corn and potato starch ranges.

The wheat starch facility will annually process about 250,000t of wheat to produce 105,000t of wheat starch, 23,500t of wheat gluten and 55,000t of wheat bran.

Wheat starch is used in the food industry for the production of noodles, bread and other bakery products, and is also used in a range of technical applications, such as in the paper industry.

Wheat gluten is used in the baking industry to refine flour and in the manufacture of pet food products as well as fish food, while wheat bran is used as animal feed.

The new facility is located alongside the company’s existing bioethanol plant, which will enable the company to achieve resource efficiency by utilising 100% of raw materials.

Agrana chief executive officer Johann Marihart said that the company’s aim is to maximise the efficient use of commodities through optimal tapping of synergies at its production sites.

"This closed-cycle form of commercial operations means that we are a major step closer to achieving this objective as a result of the wheat starch production in Pischelsdorf," Marihart added.

According to the company, the integration of the wheat starch processing plant and the existing bioethanol facility will allow the company to use cereals processed to an extent of 100%.

The left-over raw material components from the manufacture of wheat starch and gluten will be used in the production of bioethanol as well as for the production of GM-free animal feed marketed as ActiProt.

In addition, the CO2 will be extracted from the fermentation tanks of the bioethanol plant by the industrial gas company Air Liquide, which takes the total number of products manufactured from a single commodity to four.

Agrana is a leading sugar company in Central and Eastern Europe and is a supplier of specialised starch-based products in Europe as well as a major producer of bioethanol in Austria and Hungary.

The company’s Fruit division is one of the leading global producers of fruit preparations for the dairy industry and producer of fruit juice concentrates in Europe.

The company generates global revenues of more than €3bn and employs 8,500 people across its 56 production sites in 26 countries worldwide.