DECATUR, Ala. — The Decatur processing plant Bunge is expanding in a $19.8 million investment set to increase the facility's efficiency. Serving farmers over a 300-mile radius, the factory hopes to increase its daily intake of soybeans, its raw material.
Currently, trucks full of soybeans wait in a line going all the way down Market St. in Decatur. The expansion is set to double the number of trucks the Bunge facility can process at once.
The Morgan County Economic Development Association (MCEDA) CEO Jeremy Nails said, "They're predicted to go up to 40 [trucks] an hour now, whereas I think they were maybe doing half of that. I think they're going to double their production in terms of offloading those trucks."
Nails said in general, the growth and renovation of Decatur's companies are good for the city's local economy.
"It keeps the payroll here," Nails said. "It also helps the farmers. It helps the truckers. It helps provide them stability."
Decatur's mayor Tab Bowling said the project is going to help both the economy and the city's traffic around its industrial centers.
Bowling said, "This is going to increase their production and reduce traffic on the streets. And that's what we call a win-win."
Likewise, District 2 councilman Kyle Pike said new infrastructure is needed to combat the truck traffic.
"You've got farmers coming in from 300 miles around Decatur to bring their soybeans to that site," Pikes said. "It's a lot of traffic, a lot of trucks and usually in a short window during harvest season. So, it just kind of exasperates the need for more infrastructure improvements."
The project is slated to add two more spots for trucks to pull in, as well as more storage and equipment. Construction is set to start before the end of the year and should take most of 2025. The expansion is not expected to add any new jobs to the Decatur area.