By SHELLY STRAUTZ-SPRINGBORN
Michigan Correspondent

ZEELAND, Mich. — Zeeland Farm Services, Inc., (ZFS) recently was named Michigan Agriculture Exporter of the Year by the state’s Department of Agriculture (MDA) for its ability to provide high quality products to its international customers.

“Zeeland Farm Services is an exemplary representation of Michigan’s quality agricultural products in the competitive worldwide market,” said Lt. Gov. John D. Cherry Jr. “The company’s dedication to promoting sound environmental practices while expanding into untapped foreign markets is good news for our state’s growing agriculture industry.”

MDA Director Don Koivisto said ZFS was chosen to receive the award because of its strong commitment to providing non-genetically modified (GMO) products on an international scale and its prospects of sustained export growth in the future.

“Michigan exports over one-third of its agricultural commodities every year. In 2008, our ag exports generated $1.68 billion in economic activity and employed over 19,000 residents. Successes like this are the bedrock of increasing Michigan’s agricultural products in the global marketplace,” Koivisto said.

ZFS is a family-owned and -operated business with more than 60 years of service to the agricultural and transportation industries. The company handles a variety of agricultural commodities and produces premium soy products that are closely monitored from beginning to end. ZFS began exporting in 2001, and its export sales continue to grow, including markets in Japan, South Korea, Vietnam, Central America, South America, Taiwan, Indonesia and Malaysia.

This year, the company began exporting to the Philippines and China. Dan Meeuwsen, ZFS International Ingredients manager, said the company exports a variety of commodities including food-grade soybeans, soybean meal, soybean oil and a wide variety of feed ingredients.

“Most of our exports go through a company similar to ours, depending on the region,” he said. “We also deal with some fairly small customers that are very close to the farmer. Our exports are primarily for livestock feed, but some of the soybeans are food grade. Soybean meal is used to make soy sauce in a lot of places.”
Dan said the company’s export volume “has gone up substantially” since 2001, and while some international travel is necessary, much of the company’s business is done online. “We do about 80 percent of our business via the Internet and telephone,” he said. “Getting contacts with customers is easier and information flow is smoother. The world is getting smaller and has become flat.”

While marketing overseas is similar to doing business domestically, Dan said one challenge is to be sure all paperwork and documentation is in order.

“There are a lot of details to worry about, and a little bit more payment risk involved,” he said. “But, the growth potential is pretty large.”

Founded in 1950 by Robert “Bob” G. Meeuwsen as Meeuwsen Produce and Grain, the company was reorganized as Zeeland Farm Services, Inc. in 1977, to provide customers a wider variety of agricultural services. Bob sold the business to his sons, Cliff, Arlen and Robb, in 1992.

“The business has evolved over the years,” ZFS President Cliff Meeuwsen said. “It started out as a transportation business, and then evolved into buying and selling of grain and produce. Over the years, it evolved into a grain storage business, too. We grew the grain elevator alongside the transportation business.”

Cliff and his brothers grew up in the business. “We started as truck drivers,” he said. “In 1992, my father sold us the parts of the business that we worked in – the grain elevator and the farm services part of the transportation business.”

In 1992, the grain storage business was expanded into soybean processing and the transportation division was expanded. “Slowly, we expanded the soy processing plant from a 400-ton-a-day plant to the 900-ton-a-day plant it is today,” Cliff said. “We built a refinery and started refining our own soybean oil.”

Zeeland Food Services, Inc., a subsidiary of Zeeland Farm Services, Inc., produces Zoye soybean oil at its manufacturing plant in Zeeland, Mich. Zoye oils are made from ZFSelect non-GMO, identity preserved soybeans grown by Michigan farmers. Zoye is widely distributed through Meijer stores in Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Ohio and Kentucky. It also is used by USDA school lunch programs, the Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island, various Michigan restaurants and several colleges and universities.

Renewable energy is used to power ZFS’ soybean oil processing plant, which is recovered from a local landfill via a six-mile waste-to-energy pipeline. Methane gas captured from the landfill is used to create steam and to power a reciprocating engine, which powers ZFS’ operations.
“We’re using energy that used to be wasted – burned in the air,” Cliff said. “We also produce renewable electric, enough for about 4,000 homes. It’s a very efficient system.”

He said with progress made in agricultural production and farms getting larger, ZFS “had to change our business to meet the needs of larger farm organizations. We try to do things and grow areas of our business that benefit our customers.” Over the years, Cliff said opportunities have arisen that have been “natural additions” to the business.

“We have grown into a company that has a separate marketing division that markets agricultural products — both feed and food — a soy processing plant and also an ethanol plant in Nebraska that we have expanded into,” he said.

ZFS has elevators in four states – Michigan, Wisconsin, Florida and Nebraska – that are all family-owned and -operated. In Zeeland, the company has 4.5 million bushels of capacity for grain storage and the other three sites can hold about one million bushels of grain. The company handles about 10 million bushels of soybeans per year, 30 million bushels of corn per year at its ethanol plant and markets about 15 million bushels of grain per year and 60,000 pounds of protein and fiber per month.

ZFS employs about 230 people, and Cliff said that number continues to grow. “Right through the recession, we were hiring, and we still are,” he said. “We see the continuing expansion of agriculture not only being feed and food, but a feed, food and fuel business. We are getting more effective and efficient in doing those things. The farm community is growing more bushels on less acres. Our processing division is trying to keep up with that.”