A soybean-farmer cooperative will open a vitamin-processing plant near the Exol site, with the possibility of a biodiesel plant opening by 2005.

The Soymor vitamin plant would employ six to eight workers, and the biodiesel plant, depending on the results of a feasibility study, could employ 20 at full capacity.

&uot;This thing could grow into a pretty large-size project. It could have good effect on the county,&uot; said Gary Pestorious, a board member of Soymor and board chairman of Exol. He said if all goes well, in a couple years a soybean crushing plant is possible.

He said biodeisel is important to the country on several levels, including foreign policy.

&uot;The United States is ready to start using biofuels, rather than importing foreign oil. It not only helps our foreign trade deficit but helps clean up our environment,&uot; he said.

Soymor’s plans come less than a year after the state legislature passed a law requiring diesel in Minnesota to contain 2 percent biodiesel by 2005, and creating a market estimated at 16 million gallons. There are no biodiesel plants in Minnesota, although a company announced plans in September to build a plant in Brewster.

The Soymor plant could produce 25 million gallons, some of which Pestorious said could be sold in other states.

The Exol plant now produces 40 million gallons of ethanol, employs 38 people and began producing 15 million gallons a year in 1999. Soymor and Exol are two separate enterprises, although Exol has sold Soymor land, and may sell water and steam to the cooperative, Pestorious said. They also share some board members.

Ralph Groschen, Agriculture Marketing Specialist for the Minnesota Department of Agriculture, said ethanol was a success with farmers and he expects that many will try to repeat the success with biodeisel.

He said state regulations with ethanol, including a requirement of 10 percent ethanol in gasoline, helped spawn an industry that includes 14 plants and 400 million gallons of production annually.

He said a biodeisel plant would give farmers more options for selling their grain.

&uot;Farmers are dealing with commodity prices &045; soy, corn, wheat &045; and they see a downward trend,&uot; he said.

He said that in general, ethanol plants give farmers an opportunity to make money in production. &uot;The profit has not been going directly back to the farming. In this case it would,&uot; he said.

(Contact Tim Sturrock at tim.sturrock@albertleatribune.com or 379-3438.)