FARGO — American Crystal Sugar Co. officials announced the company is expanding its Drayton, N.D., factory at the farmer-owned cooperative's annual meeting on Thursday, Dec. 7, in Fargo..

Tom Astrup, the Moorhead, Minn., co-op's president and CEO for just over a year, also announced that the projected initial gross beet payment for 2017 beets is $46 per ton, which is better than last year's final payment of $42.45 per ton for 2016 beets, primarily because beets are sweeter and more valuable.

Astrup said the company spent up to $20 million to $25 million on the Drayton, N.D., factory in the summer of 2017 and will do the same in 2018. That building project likely will span four or more years. They'll spend $100 million and expect to increase their slice capacity in that factory by increasing that factory's output by about 30 percent and the company as a whole by 5 percent to 7 percent.

Read more at http://www.inforum.com/news/4371009-american-crystal-expand-nd-factory-projects-sweet-46-ton-payments

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