Blumberg Grain eyes hub to serve $6.3bn West African market

U.S.-BASED Blumberg Grain (Miami, Florida), a global provider of high-tech, vertically integrated crop and food storage systems, plans to build a first-of-its-kind manufacturing plant and export hub in West Africa. The investment is expected to create more than 1,000 jobs and generate exports of more than $1.25 billion for the selected host country. Blumberg Grain said. 

Blumberg Grain plans to choose its business partners and hub site by the first quarter of 2013 and begin production during the latter half of next year, as part of its global strategy to open such hubs worldwide. Ghana, Nigeria and Namibia are among the locations under consideration, it said.

Once established, the West African hub will supply the region with state-of-the-art warehouses and inventory management systems, and food stock management and commodities exchange platforms.

“The selection process for the manufacturing plant and export hub has been under way for several months, and we have had a very high level of interest from many West African countries,” said Philip Blumberg, chairman and chief executive of Blumberg Capital Partners, the managing company behind Blumberg Grain.

In parts of the world, post-harvest losses have reached a staggering 60 per cent. Blumberg Grain’s patent pending technology is designed to stem a widening global problem: volatile food supplies due to post-harvest losses of grain, produce, and other perishables. Its food storage and preservation systems can help cut field and post-harvest losses to less than five per cent.

“Our hub provides a significant advantage over competitors, including companies from China, who tend to source labor and materials only from their home countries. We make a commitment to local employment and training, as well as to working with local companies for steel supply, logistics and engineering services, significantly increasing the hub country’s GDP,” Mr Blumberg said.

Warehouses for West Africa

Blumberg Grain’s manufacturing plant and export hub will initially produce 1,200 warehouses annually. Demand for such technology in the West African region is estimated to be a $6.3-billion opportunity.

“Our warehouses are both cost efficient and technologically scalable,” said Christian Rath, senior vice president of Blumberg Grain. “Each warehouse, for example, can be linked electronically to sophisticated inventory-management systems and global commodities exchanges, enabling countries and commercial enterprises to remotely track their food supplies and take advantage of peak market pricing conditions.”

The warehouses are pre-fabricated to be the fastest to deploy in the world. Easily transportable, they can be quickly moved to rural areas to mitigate on-farm post-harvest losses. When erected together in regional centers, the warehouses also can act as large grArtículos deportivos para ni?os