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CapitalPress.com
Friday, December 21, 2018
Port of Lewiston works to diversify
By BRAD CARLSON
Capital Press
Lewis-Clark Terminal is
building a small rail-load-
ing facility at the Port of
Lewiston.
It’s slated for completion
by early February.
“It has been a good
year,” said Scott Zuger,
general manager at Lew-
is-Clark Terminal.
Some facility and market
expansion continues at the
Port of Lewiston, which has
tried to broaden its revenue
base since losing ocean-
going container business
about three years ago. That
occurred after container
vessels stopped calling on
the Port of Portland amid a
labor dispute.
“There was definitely a
drop in revenue from the
loss of container volumes,”
Port of Lewiston General
Manager David Doerings-
feld said. Tonnage exported
from the port fell by around
15 percent — most of it
Courtesy Keith Carlson
The Port of Lewiston, Idaho, lost oceangoing containers due
to events downstream but still has its grain-barge business,
which has seen some expansion.
pulse crops — when the
container business stopped.
“The dollar loss was
probably, ballpark for
just that part of it, about
$450,000 in throughput
fees,” he said. Taking out
associated expenses, the net
loss was under $200,000.
The port extended a dock
to receive sawdust and chip
barges headed upstream.
Doeringsfeld said that seg-
ment now generates nearly
$100,000 in revenue, and
little expense.
“And we are continuing
to work on break-bulk vol-
umes, he said, “bringing
equipment manufactured
overseas that is brought to a
Columbia River port, put on
a barge, offloaded here, put
on a truck and taken into the
interior of the U.S.”
For the fiscal year that
started July 1, the port’s bud-
get is around $1.6 million,
down from about $2 mil-
lion recently, mainly due to
a lack of major port-owned
construction projects, he
said. Oceangoing containers
once occupied chunks of a
large storage yard. For now,
the yard is not vacant all
the time. Large, upstream-
bound equipment is stored
there as needed.
“At this point, we are not
converting that area to any
other use,” Doeringsfeld
said. “We are optimistic
containers will come back
in the future.”
Hong Kong-based Swire
Shipping early this year
began calling on the Port of
Portland for container ser-
vice. Doeringsfeld said this
has been a welcome devel-
opment but does not impact
the Port of Lewiston, the
West’s most inland seaport,
because Swire’s capacity is
minimal compared to total
demand — and thus filled
close to Portland.
“It has to get there some-
how,” said Todd Scholz,
vice president of research
and member services for the
Moscow, Idaho-based USA
Dry Pea & Lentil Council.
Peas, lentils and chick-
peas from Idaho, Washing-
ton and Montana now get to
Seattle or Tacoma ports by
truck or train.
“It’s more expensive and
less efficient,” Scholz said.
“We need the container ships
back.” The pulse crops are
shipped in bags rather than
in bulk.
Pacific Northwest (PNW)
Farmers
Cooperative,
Uniontown Cooperative and
CHS Primeland own Lew-
is-Clark Terminal. PNW
also leases a Lewis-Clark
Terminal facility where it
cleans pulse crops; much of
that volume is loaded onto
boxcars. PNW has a unit
train facility, for hauling sin-
gle types of commodities
directly, near Rosalia, Wash.
Amalgamated Sugar enters betaine-production venture with Austrian company
By BRAD CARLSON
Capital Press
Amalgamated Sugar Co.
recently signed a joint-ven-
ture agreement with Vien-
na-based fruit, starch and
sugar enterprise The Agrana
Group to build a beta-
ine crystallization plant at
Agrana’s facility in Tulln,
Austria.
Work on the nearly $40
million project is slated to
start in early 2019 and take
about a year.
Betaine is a by-product
of sugar beets. It is extracted
in the sugar production pro-
cess. The vitamin-rich sub-
stance is used as a feed
constituent to help ani-
mals naturally retain proper
water and salt concentra-
tions. It’s also used in food
supplements, sports drinks
and cosmetic products.
Amalgamated Sugar has
Amalgamated Sugar
Amalgamated Sugar has struck a deal with Austrian company
Agrana Group to build a betaine plant.
been extracting liquid beta-
ine from sugar beet molas-
ses since 1994. The Boi-
se-based company started
producing crystalline beta-
ine in 2005. The Beta Pura
joint venture’s Austria plant
will be the third production
site in the world where nat-
ural, high-quality crystal-
line is produced, Amalgam-
ated said in a news release.
Amalgamated Sugar is
a world leader in crystal-
line betaine technology,
company President and
CEO John McCreedy said.
“Our growers and company
staff are looking forward
to working with Agrana in
this market. Leveraging the
technology developed by
our subsidiary company,
Amalgamated
Research
LLC, is an important strate-
gic initiative for our future.”
Amalgamated
Sugar
Communications Specialist
Jessica McAnally said the
research subsidiary devel-
oped the technology to sep-
arate betaine from sugar
beet molasses, and is one of
two companies in the world
that can separate and crys-
tallize betaine. Amalgam-
ated Sugar produces liq-
uid betaine at its plants in
Twin Falls and Nampa,
Idaho. The company pro-
duces crystalline betaine in
Nampa.
“This allows us to
expand into different mar-
kets,” she said. “We are
hoping to expand in the
feed market and also pos-
sibly the cosmetics mar-
ket.” She expects the new
joint venture to “posi-
tively affect the payments
we are able to provide our
grower-owners.”
Amalgamated Sugar par-
ent cooperative Snake River
Sugar Co.’s more than 750
members grow sugar beets
on more than 180,000 acres
in Idaho, Oregon and Wash-
ington. Amalgamated said
it is the second-largest pro-
ducer of sugar from beets
in the U.S. Sugar prices
remain at 1980s levels, the
American Sugar Alliance
reported.
Agrana converts agricul-
tural raw materials into food
and other products. The
company employs about
8,700 people at 59 sites
around the world.
51-3/103
Exiting
WSU
provost: Ag
will remain
priority
Bernardo: Years
as CAHNRS dean
‘highlight of my
professional life’
By MATTHEW WEAVER
Capital Press
Agriculture will remain
a top priority at Washington
State University after its pro-
vost, a former leader of the
agricultural college, departs
next spring, he says.
Washington State Univer-
sity provost Dan Bernardo
announced
last week his
decision to
leave once a
replacement
is
found,
slated
for
the end of
Dan
the spring
Bernardo
semester.
Bernardo served as dean
of WSU’s College of Agri-
cultural, Human and Natu-
ral Resource Sciences from
2005 to 2013, before moving
into the provost position.
“Over the past couple of
years, I’ve had a couple sig-
nals from my body that I
might need to slow down a
little bit,” Bernardo, 60, told
the Capital Press. “This is a
job that requires a tremen-
dous amount of effort and
energy and I just feel that
energy waning a little bit.”
Part of the process in
selecting a new provost will
be finding someone who
respects WSU’s mission as
a land-grant university with
strong agricultural programs,
Bernardo said.
Bernardo praised current
CAHNRS Dean Andre-De-
nis Wright and WSU Presi-
dent Kirk Schulz.
“I think it’s safe to say the
food and agriculture indus-
try will remain a high prior-
ity for Washington State Uni-
versity,” he said.
After his replacement
comes on board, Bernardo
will work part-time, about 60
percent of his current work-
load, averaging three days a
week. He will serve as a spe-
cial assistant to Schulz on
various projects that would
require “constant administra-
tive attention.”
“Some of those are proj-
ects that I have within my
scope now, but unfortunately,
I have about 15 of those balls
I’m trying to juggle,” Ber-
nardo said. “This would
allow me to take three or four
of them and some others the
president might have and
just dedicate my attention to
those.”
The projects for Schulz
would likely not have an
agricultural connection, he
said.
“If there’s opportunities
or needs, I’m always there to
help,” he said.
Bernardo recalls his time
as dean fondly. He said
Wright has the best job at
WSU.
“I can probably say that
better than anybody, because
I’ve had just about every job
at (WSU),” he said with a
laugh. “Whatever I can do to
support (Wright), the college
and the industry, I’ll certainly
be there for them.”
Bernardo also filled in as
interim president for a year
upon the death of Elson
Floyd in 2015 until Schulz
was hired. The years as dean
of the agricultural college
were the highlight of Ber-
nardo’s professional life,
he said, crediting industry
support and relationships
with farmers that he says
make Washington the envy
of just about every other
state.
“When you think about a
lot of the fractured relation-
ships that we inherited, where
we’ve come over the last two
decades is truly amazing,”
he said. “I just appreciate so
much the producers particu-
larly, because that was instru-
mental. That was the defining
achievement, certainly, in my
tenure in CAHNRS.”