Corn Refiners Association Celebrates 100 Years

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
March 13, 2013

CONTACT: David Knowles
(202) 534-3494

WASHINGTON, DC – In a gathering at the Library of Congress, the Corn Refiners Association (CRA) and representatives of food, beverage, ingredient, and agricultural industries celebrated the history and accomplishments of the corn wet milling industry over the last century. 2013 marks 100 years since the trade association was founded.

“This is an opportunity to thank our customers and suppliers for their support over the last century,” said Matthew Wineinger, Chairman of the CRA and President of Tate & Lyle Bulk Ingredients. “Our partnership has enabled us to provide the products and ingredients that are essential for so many manufactured goods. We look forward to the next one hundred years of partnership and innovation.”

The CRA was founded in 1913 as the American Manufacturers Association of Products from Corn. It has taken on issues including trade, food safety, biotechnology, and defending its products against misinformation. The corn wet milling industry makes products that are used for paper, pharmaceuticals, ethanol, starches, sweeteners, and animal feed, among many others.

Members of Congress in attendance included Representatives Rodney Davis of Illinois and Adrian Smith of Nebraska, who served as the keynote speaker for the event. In his remarks Smith said, “I like the can do, the let’s get it done approach that agriculture so often has, of not only feeding America, but helping feed the world.”

In recent years, the CRA has worked to increase exports to Mexico and has been a supporter of free trade agreements with Panama, Colombia, and South Korea, and undertaken an educational campaign on high fructose corn syrup.

The corn wet milling industry has 23 plants in 11 states, where they employ more than 8,000 people and refine more than 1.8 billion bushels of corn annually. The CRA’s members are Archer Daniels Midland Company, Cargill, Ingredion, Inc., Penford Products, Roquette America, and Tate & Lyle Americas.

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The Corn Refiners Association (CRA) is the national trade association representing the corn refining (wet milling) industry of the United States. CRA and its predecessors have served this important segment of American agribusiness since 1913. Corn refiners manufacture sweeteners, ethanol, starch, bioproducts, corn oil and feed products from corn components such as starch, oil, protein and fiber.