The Woodlands / TX. (rbt) RiceBran Technologies, a global leader in the production and marketing of value-added products derived from rice bran and a producer of rice, rice co-product, and barley and oat products, announced that the Company has reached a significant milestone in debottlenecking its Golden Ridge Rice Mills operation in Arkansas («Golden Ridge»).
In late September, the Company completed the installation of certain new processing, milling, and grading equipment designed to achieve a significant increase milling volume per hour while producing a higher yield of more valuable milled products. This is expected to result in a substantial increase in revenue, better absorption of fixed costs, and higher margins. The Company also expects to achieve further improvement in milling capacity with the installation of two additional pieces of production equipment slated for October.
«We are pleased with the progress made since we reinitiated operations on Thursday, September 26 after the two week installation process for this new equipment,» said Brent R. Rystrom, President and CEO of RiceBran Technologies. «While we are still early in our operational ramp, our production volumes are up multi-fold from where we have been the last several months, quality is much improved, and we are experiencing a sharp enhancement in our product grading capabilities. All of this should lead to significantly higher sales, better cost absorption, as well as much improved margins and Ebitda at both Golden Ridge and RiceBran Technologies.»
