Cargill Inc. said Thursday that it will spend $475 million to expand and update soybean processing plants in seven states, raising capacity at a moment when demand and prices are soaring.
The Minnetonka, Minn., company said most of the spending will be at plants in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Wichita, Kan., Kansas City, Mo., and Sidney, Ohio.
Cargill didn’t disclose what the investment represented as a portion of its overall capital spending.
U.S. soybean prices are at the highest level in six years. One driver is trade demand, mainly from China after last year’s truce in the trade war between Washington and Beijing.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture last month forecast that U.S. farmers will plant more than 90 million acres of soybeans this year — a record.