Besides being the newest flour mill in the United States, the Ardent Mills flour mill built along the Gulf coast in metropolitan Tampa, Florida, US, has several details that set it apart. Advanced analytics, state-of-the-art equipment, unusually large grain storage capacity and unique supply chain capabilities are among the mill’s distinguishing features.

At 17,500 cwts of daily flour milling capacity, the Port Redwing mill is not Ardent Mills’ largest and is not among the 25 largest flour mills in the United States. With the capacity to receive large quantities of wheat, though, Ardent Mills constructed a large grain elevator at the Port Redwing mill, with 4.1 million bushels of storage capacity.

The elevator may be the largest ever built concurrent with the construction of a US flour mill and, according to the 2022 Grain & Milling Annual published by Sosland Publishing Co., it is the sixth largest elevator of any US flour mill currently operating. The concrete elevator includes 12, 50-foot-concrete bins with 300,000 bushels of grain storage apiece as well as a number of smaller grain bins.

Despite the challenges from the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, suppliers in the grain handling and storage and milling industries continued to innovate and introduce new products and services. Here a few that are highlighted in the 2022 International Buyers Guide.