Japanese Conglomerate To Build Grain Elevator in North Dakota

Link here.

A Japanese conglomerate, Mitsui, is building a shuttle elevator in this nearly abandoned outpost in Adams County to get down and local with one of its most important imports.

The elevator will be in service for the 2013 harvest. It will give locals a new direction and a third option for selling grain in the region. It will allow Mitsui — doing business as its subsidiary United Grain Corp. — to bypass the middleman and buy its own hard red spring wheat and other grains direct from the farm.

The Bucyrus elevator is Japan's first entree into southwestern North Dakota's wheat market, but not its first statewide. Another Japanese corporation, Marubeni, either owns outright or partially owns seven elevators all east and north of the Missouri River.

Japan is the only country with direct ownership in grain elevators in North Dakota. The eight represent a small fraction of the 400 licensed elevators in the state, but are reflective of a trend by other countries to invest here in their food security.

Get the rest of the story and the numbers at the linked story. 

Adams County borders South Dakota state to the south; Bowman County to the west. Hettinger is the county seat.