Brazilian ag-tech firm leases CIE space

For the second time in about two weeks a company with ties to the Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship at Northwest Missouri State University has announced its intention to locate a production facility in Nodaway County.

On October 24, San Diego-based ChloroFill held a press conference in Burlington Junction with regard to the proposed opening of a plant in the northwest part of the county that will manufacture construction panels made from locally grown sorghum.

During a similar event Tuesday, local and state economic development officials, along with university administrators, went public with an agreement that will bring Missouri Moisture Analyzers to the CIE itself.

Missouri Moisture is a subsidiary of Motomco Group of Brazil, a corporation headed by Commercial Director/CEO Manoel Henrique da Silva, who attended Tuesday's announcement ceremony at the combination academic/private sector facility located on the Northwest campus.

Motomco Group is a manufacturer of several quality-control products related to grain production and is currently launching a Canadian operation, Canada Moisture Analyzers of Winnipeg, in conjunction with its planned expansion in Maryville.

Motomco also has offices in Brazil's leading agricultural regions as well as in Argentina and Paraguay. Its products are sold throughout the Americas as well as to countries in Europe and Africa.

Projected to created between seven and nine new jobs locally, Missouri Moisture is leasing 1,000 square-feet of space in the CIE that will be turned into a fabrication plant where workers will assemble parts imported from Brazil.

The machines produced at the facility will be of the type familiar to anyone who has ever been in a grain elevator office, where they are used to measure the moisture content of harvested corn, soybeans and other grains.

Producers often use portable versions of the same devices to determine the moisture content of crops still in the field. Motomco makes both types of machine.

The terms under which Motomco will lease its CIE facility were set forth in an agreement approved last week by the Northwest Board of Regents and signed Tuesday by da Silva and Northwest Provost Doug Dunham.

"As a company, we were seeking a location in the center of the United States close to agricultural production throughout North America," da Silva said in a prepared statement.

He added that Motomco chose Maryville after a recruitment process that involved the Missouri Partnership, a non-profit economic development group based in St. Louis; the Kansas City Area Development Council; Nodaway County Economic Development; and CIE Director Larry Lee.
"Our customer needs are paramount," da Silva said, "and we look forward to working with Northwest Missouri State University faculty and students in the further development of customized products."