Get Prepared Now For 2021
This year has been an anomaly, to say the least, and some businesses are playing defense just to keep the doors open. The good thing about our industry, is regardless of any pandemic that may keep people from frequenting restaurants, malls or local shops, people and animals still need to eat. The corn and soybean crops are in and will be harvested in a few short months.
As a business owner, it would be prudent to take a minute now, in July, and see where the winds are blowing in order to adequately prepare to kick off 2021. Here are a few questions you can ask yourself:
Should you consider expanding your offerings?
If you currently extrude soybeans to make full fat soy, you could add an oil press to make high quality ExPress® soy meal, and soybean oil. If you are already making ExPress® meal, you could consider adding a corn extrusion line that makes highly digestible gelatinized corn, mainly used as an inexpensive and value added ingredient for swine, poultry and dairy cows. You can read more about that here. In some areas where rice is produced, adding a rice bran stabilization line can turn fresh rice bran into a stabilized bran with up to 9 months of shelf life. We have seen several rice millers add the rice bran extrusion line right next to the rice mill to instantly stabilize the bran before it can become rancid.
Should I expand?
Turning away customers is always difficult and if you do not have the capacity to fulfill their order, they may never come back. A 1 ton per hour, an Insta-Pro extruder can run 24 hours a day if necessary, so if you are not using all the hours in the day, perhaps that is an easy solution. If that is not possible, or you are already running 24 hours, you may need to see if you have sufficient space in your plant to add an additional extrusion line. Insta-Pro added the model 9000 extruder, a 4-ton per hour extruder that can improve your space efficiency while increasing your capacity.
What can I do with my excess meal?
Every now and again, we have a customer ask us if they know anyone buying ExPress® soybean meal. Most of the time, one of the sales professionals knows someone that would like to buy meal, either imported from the US, or made locally.
Although there are many aspects to running a successful extrusion business, the above are a few ideas to consider when planning for next year. Good luck finishing out 2020 strong and get out ahead of the competition you will face next year.
Please feel free to reach out to your Insta-Pro Sales Representative if you need help selling your excess meal or oil.
