South Louisiana Rice Mill facility now operational, provides better prices to farmers

Lacassine, LA (KPLC) - South Louisiana Rail Facility’s new rice mill is expected to make its mark on SWLA’s rice industry.

“The whole area benefits from the economic gain the farmers are getting from this rice,” rail facility secretary treasurer, Kyle Todd, said.

Todd said milling helps out the farmers by making their product more profitable.

“It will give the farmer a better price point for their product than the rough rice market, when we mill it opens up all new markets both domestic and international to give the farmer a better price per barrel for his rice,” Todd said.

The $21 million 5-story facility has been years in the making.

“It took us about 2 and a half years to get here, we went through of course two hurricanes, a pandemic, an ice storm and a flood, and we finally got here, and about 3 weeks ago, we started milling our first batch of rice,” Todd said.

Currently, the mill is producing rice at a rate of 10 tons per hour which they said allows the facility to export more efficiently on a global scale.

“The farmers that supply our rice come from this local area, South Louisiana. In addition to that, we have some in Southeast Texas, and when we take the rice, we market it not only domestically, but internationally - Mexico, South America, Brazil,” Todd said.

The facility will begin shipping rice out to buyers sometime next week.

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