Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) has recently opened a new 275 acre facility in Decatur, Illinois which would give U.S. farmers an alternative method of shipping soybeans, corn or wheat for export. Usually, to take advantage of the economies of scale, U.S. soybeans, corn, and wheat being shipped overseas would be loaded into the cargos of large vessels headed for large Asian or European ports. Now, ADM is making available to farmers the 40 foot shipping container in which China ships consumer goods to the U.S. Container shipping has experienced double digit growth in recent years – the smaller containers can be accepted in smaller ports that cannot handle the large shipping vessels and can make it possible to ship smaller custom orders or certain varieties of grains. ADM’s facility in Decatur can currently handle 50,000 containers per year and the company plans to triple its capacity in the near future.
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