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AGP plant closes in Hastings
It's the latest victim in the troubled biofuels industry. AGP of Hastings announced it has shut down its operations of the corn processing plant effective Friday.
News 5's Dara Newson joins us live at the site with a look at how many employees will be affected. Forty-three employees were let go. Company officials say ongoing challenging economic conditions in the ethanol industry forced the shutdown of the corn processing plant. General manager Keith Spackler said the facility, like other corn processing plants in the Midwest, continues to experience negative margins due to higher corn prices. Those prices being driven by ongoing drought conditions and lower ethanol prices. News 5 talked with one of the employees let go Friday. He's been working at the plant for sixteen years and says he didn't see this coming. "Some of us thought it, maybe thought it out loud sometimes but we thought we'd just turn around start back up in a couple months and go from there but when they made it official today it really stings," said Mike Reams. The corn processing plant is the only operation that closed its doors. The co-op also operates a soybean plant, a vegetable oil refinery and an Amino Plus production facility, those operations will not be impacted. In the Midwest, dozens of ethanol plants have closed including three within the last couple of weeks. AGP will continue to evaluate its market conditions. |
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