Texas Border Business
This week, West Foods doubled down on Rio South Texas, increasing its investment from $50 million to $75 million in the Port of Brownsville. It added operations for a sunflower oil mill and its original flour mill project.
The Port of Brownsville and COSTEP, Council for South Texas Economic Progress, marked one more project in the win column as they welcomed Westa Foods on April 18, 2024. COSTEP began working with the company in the last quarter of 2023 and soon found a suitable location in the Port of Brownsville. The groundbreaking event heralded an initial private capital investment of $25 million and 120 potential jobs for the Rio South Texas Region. Since then, Westa Foods has increased its capital investment projection to $50 million for its flour mill project.
In an article by Whole-Grain.com, May 14, 2024, Mr. Zaur Kafkas described the project, Westa Foods’ first location in the U.S.:
“Making its first venture into flour milling in the United States, Westa, Inc. has begun construction of a $70 million flour mill at the Port of Brownsville, with plans to mill US wheat and export some of the flour to international destinations.
In an exclusive interview with World Grain, Zaur Kafkas, chief executive officer of Westa, said the mill’s construction, which began with a groundbreaking ceremony on April 18, will be completed in several stages.”
“The first stage, with an investment of approximately $20 million, will consist of one milling line with (flour production) capacity of 250 tonnes (5,000 cwts) per day,” Kafkas said. “Subsequent stages will add another 250-tonne milling line and storage silos with a capacity of 20,000 tonnes (735,000 bushels) of grain, along with a warehouse.”
Westa Foods intends to increase its capital investment by an additional $25 million for operations of a sunflower oil mill.
COSTEP, the Council for South Texas Economic Progress is a nongovernmental organization advocating regional economic development for the seven-county region of Rio South Texas. Servicing the counties of Willacy, Cameron, Hidalgo, Starr, Jim Hogg, Zapata, and Webb. COSTEP focuses on business recruitment services and provides regional market data to host site selector tours, regional familiarization tours, and area economic development enrichment sessions. To learn more about how you can support our work visit COSTEP.org or contact Adam Gonzalez at agonzalez@costep.org.
