Yara’s terminal in West Sacramento, Calif., was officially welcomed Tuesday as Yara North America’s newest U.S. facility. While continually operational since Yara purchased the West Sacramento facility from Agrium in December 2015, the event Tuesday acknowledged the transition of the terminal to a fully integrated Yara site.
Immediately after acquiring the facility, Yara converted the former UAN production plant into an import terminal for UAN and urea, which it receives from the U.S. and overseas. Most recent improvements include completely re-skinning the 29,000 MT urea warehouse, utilizing energy-efficient translucent panels to allow natural light to enter. The dock is currently being redesigned to improve safety and efficiencies during dry vessel discharge operations.
“West Sacramento is an important part of our growth ambitions,” said Yara North America president Magnus Ankarstrand during the opening presentation. “It is a large site with additional available capacity, and our aim is to grow it, utilizing the flexibility of the free capacity to optimize our distribution pattern in California.”
The celebration coincided with National Ag Day.
“Yara’s business from the West Sacramento terminal,” Ankarstrand said, “will impact half a million acres of crop production across 20 different large-acre crops, which in turn will generate $500 million of farm revenue this year. This speaks to the importance of agriculture in the U.S.”
“Yara’s investments in the West Sacramento terminal add momentum to our city’s push to be a global food and ag hub,” said West Sacramento city manager Martin Tuttle, who was present for the event. “Their team’s expertise and the products they provide to ag customers are highly regarded and a huge source of pride to us.”
“The transformation while with Yara has been just breathtaking,” says Ron Garcia, regional facilities manager of Yara’s western region. “Yara’s investment in the site and in its employees speaks very highly of the company. We are all proud and fortunate to be part of such a forward-thinking business that values relationships within the organization and in the communities it serves.”
The rain stopped and clouds parted to reveal the sun just five minutes before the ribbon-cutting ceremony was conducted at the terminal. A crowd of about 75 gathered to celebrate the event and learn more about the location’s capabilities. Following the presentations and ribbon-cutting, tours of the facility were given and lunch was served.