At a press conference held at the Greenville Higher Education Center in Greenville, Miss., Melbourne, Australian-based agricultural chemical company Nufarm, announced it will open a manufacturing and blending facility in Greenville that will bring 68 new jobs to Washington County.

Elbert Prado, and Brendan Deck, executives for Nufarm, broke the news to local, state, and regional officials, and 50 Nufarm employees who were shuttled down from Memphis, Tenn., for the event. “Our growth mandated we find another facility to not only increase our capacity of product development, but also facilitate efficient distribution logistically to our farmer customers,” said Prado.

Negotiations with Greenville’s Mayor Errick Simmons and other key local, state, and regional representatives, culminated in Nufarm committing a $20 million capital investment to renovate the 106,000 square-foot existing MATCOR building that was previously used by automobile manufacturer, Nissan, to make dashboard infrastructure for its Armada line of cars.

“The Nufarm team was a pleasure to work with and recognized the value we were able to deliver them, which led to their commitment to invest in this new production facility,” said Simmons. “Greenville has a green thumb for agriculture and the incentives we were able to offer, combined with the synergy derived from all of our economic-development organizations, made Greenville the perfect location for Nufarm to establish the next chapter in their business growth.”

Products, Jobs, and Skills

Nufarm manufactures a wide-range of crop protection products for the agricultural and turf markets such as fungicides, insecticides, and herbicides.

Once renovated, the facility will be used to add-value to their products through the mixing and blending of chemistries.

“The facility will be used as a distribution point to our customers in eastern New Mexico, south to Texas and across the Southeast,” said Tom Lyons, vice president, Operations, for Nufarm. “This location will allow us to package our products in whatever size volumes our customers request — from 1-gallon bottles to totes.”

Raw materials will be transported from other Nufarm sites and from their various vendors across the United States. While most of the facility will be dedicated to manufacturing and shipping, there will be some office and meeting facilities to support their customer service and on-site management.

“We’ll start by hiring a plant manager — a critical position to be filled initially,” said Brad Hyman, vice president, Sales, for Nufarm. “Under this manager’s direction, we will be able to fulfill orders within 24 hours, which should be critical to farmers during key times of the production season.”

Hyman expects the other 67 positions the facility will require to encompass everything from forklift drivers and warehouse workers, to truck drivers and manufacturing-related laborers. The Manufacturing Skills Training Program spearheaded by the Capps Technology Center in Indianola, Miss., prepares and trains workers in a variety of skillsets.

“Nufarm will also be working with WIN Job Center under the umbrella of the Mississippi Department of Employment Security Division, to yield potential employees,” explained Mitzi Woods, workforce director, South Delta Planning and Development District for the Delta Workforce Development Area. “We have discussed establishing on-the-job-training and internships with Nufarm.”

An internship is a 320-hour paid opportunity where an employee can work for an employer for a select timeframe and then undergo an evaluation for consideration of full-time employment. Woods is hopeful that by the time the Nufarm facility begins producing product in April 2019, interns will be in place.

A congratulatory letter from Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant, read by Glenn McCullcough Jr., executive director, Mississippi Development Authority, stated agriculture is Mississippi’s largest industry and brings in $8 billion annually to the state. “There are 36,000 family farms in our state and we feel Nufarm could not have selected a more logistically-appropriate site,” concluded McCullcough.