MARSHALL — Updates that allowed the Archer Daniels Midland plant in Marshall to process more corn starch for customers are online and hitting goals, plant manager Eric McVey said this week.

McVey said the plant expansions were completed about a year ago, and have been up and running. The increased starch production is helping meet demand from ADM customers, he said.

McVey and ADM staff were at the Marshall Area Chamber of Commerce’s Business After Hours event earlier this week to help answer questions from the public about the Marshall corn plant. Employees had hands-on stations explaining how different products are made at the plant, from corn starch and germ to different kinds of sweeteners.

Construction of plant expansions for starch processing started in the summer of 2022.

A new customer — the Solugen chemical plant — has plans to build close by the ADM plant in the near future. Solugen company spokespeople have said that part of the reason they planned to build a new 500,000 square-foot facility in Marshall was because they would be close to a source of dextrose, a type of sugar produced at the ADM plant. Solugen would use the dextrose as feedstock to make alternatives to petroleum products.

McVey said supplying the Solugen plant with dextrose wouldn’t really mean a lot of building on ADM’s side of things. The project would also need to move on Solugen’s timeline, he said.

Recently, Solugen has said it will take a slower approach to construction, with a lot of the work being paused this year.

McVey said the different products made at the Marshall ADM plant still come from local suppliers. The corn that is brought to the Marshall plant mainly comes from within a radius of about 45 to 60 miles from Marshall, he said.

“We help the local economy by doing that,” McVey said.

On a local level, there are some ongoing challenges ADM faces.

“We’re always looking for good people,” he said. In addition to getting enough good employees, having strong transportation infrastructure in southwest Minnesota was another important issue for the plant, he said.