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POET breaks ground on Marion, Ohio expansion

The CEO of POET Biorefining says expansion to the company’s Marion (Ohio) facility will help improve farmers’ bottom line.

Jeff Broin  says by expanding biofuels production they will help increase demand for corn are below the cost of production

“Anytime we create demand we can help the farmer,” he says. “Today prices on the farm are below  the cost of production and farmers are hurting out there and so expansions like this one can tighten the grain supply, not just in the this area but for the entire country and the world and help to make an impact on prices.”

He says farmers are struggling with low commodity prices and decreasing land values and continued growth in the biofuels industry could help offset those challenges.

“Biofuels brought agriculture out of the problem in the 1980s and biofuels are going to need to bring us out of the problems that are starting right now,” he says.

The company will increase its production capacity from 70 million gallons per year to 150 million gallons and will increase processing to about 50 million bushels, or 20 percent of Ohio’s corn crop, annually for ethanol and dried distillers grains.

POET broke ground today on the $120 million expansion that will be completed in September 2018.

Audio: Jeff Broin, POET Biorefining CEO