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The burgeoning biofuels market has created a whole new concern for grain producers: shipping DDGS overseas.

International Feed, a Minnesota-based supplier and exporter of animal feed ingredients, forged a relationship with an unlikely source to address the issue of storing and shipping their DDGS. Ashley Furniture, located blocks away from a grains transloading facility, offered a unique solution to their storage needs.

Arcadia Cooperative Association is a transloading facility located in Arcadia, WI that is capable of transloading anywhere from 250 to 500 tons a day. In 2004 International Feed presented Arcadia Co-op with an offer they couldn’t refuse.

Bernie Kaiser, president of International Feed, saw that the Ashley Furniture in Arcadia had plenty of containers and rail access to facilitate shipping of the co-product to the Orient. But he needed a connection. That’s where Arcadia Co-op fits into the puzzle.

“We are located in the Twin Cities and we needed a partner to run the operation in Arcadia,” says Kaiser. “The co-op understood our business.”

“International Feed approached us with this job. They knew there were empty containers at Ashley and that we were just blocks away with an active feed center,” says Paul Lundequam, transloading manager at Arcadia Co-op.

The deal was so successful for International Feed that they were able to provide Arcadia Co-op with enough work to transload 20 containers a day, in an 8-hour shift.