Central States Fumigation & Services
Central States Fumigation and Services was founded in 1995 by Roger Sanborn, president and chief executive officer of Central States Enterprises, LLC. The company’s corporate headquarters is located in Salina, KS with other major offices in New Orleans, LA, Houston, TX, Portsmouth, VA, and Burlington, IA. It was originally established to satisfy growing customer demand for quality and dependable fumigation service in the central plains area of the United States, hence the name.
Central States Fumigation and Services’ Gulf Coast division was founded in 2004. It extends the company’s service base to the port handling facilities in the Gulf of Mexico and the surrounding area.
Central States specializes in services related to the fumigation of export vessels, inland barges, raw agricultural product storage warehouses, food processing facilities, and PPQ work to the various industries.
Grain Journal recently spoke with Roger Sanborn to discuss the company’s position in the market, what’s hot, and what’s trending with fumigation in the grain industry.
Trade tariffs are a new challenge for us, and it’s challenging to keep on top of the grain movement and projecting our service needs based on the movement or lack of movement. Of course, the tariffs have affected everyone in the domestic grain supply chain, so that’s had a big impact on us and the industry as a whole recently.
Another thing that we’ve seen a lot more of is fogging over the grain surface with longer-term storage. It seems like people are rediscovering the process of fogging grain structures. The benefit of fogging is to extend the time between fumigation cycles. So, we’ve been doing a lot more of those types of treatments. In the past, it didn’t seem like people had a lot of interest in fogging, but there seems to have been a shift in the past few years.
Other than that, we’re constantly branching out into new areas to grow the business. I can’t necessarily speak for the industry itself, as I don’t see a lot of growth.
One area that has been growing for us, specifically, is that we’re doing a lot more grain inspections – probing and sampling – as our customers are holding and storing commodities longer due to the market conditions. Storing grain without proper monitoring can create serious issues with grain quality. So we provide inspection programs, and we do it typically in 45-day cycles. We go in and do sampling and inventory work so our customers can get grades. Then they monitor those grades and the condition of the commodity. We’re here to assist customers by tracking quality issues and trends in storage structures, as well as taking temperatures and checking for insects.
One of the trends we’re starting to see more interest in is constructing bins that are fumigation friendly, which is kind of long overdue. Our team has been working with manufacturers to help them develop structures that are easy to seal and fumigate. I don’t know that they’re necessarily retrofitting existing facilities, but a lot of these new structures will put bin seals at the eaves to seal them to the roof of the bin, creating a more gas-tight structure. They’re putting eave seals around these big tanks, and they’re also putting walkways around the top so you can seal the vents safely and much more efficiently. Essentially, it allows for a more effective fumigation, and that’s one of the trends that we’ve been involved with directly.
As a company, we always try to provide services that are of value to the customer, both domestic and foreign. We have a marketing team that’s highly qualified, and they help ensure our corporate values are communicated and that they take care of customer needs.
Our management team provides a hands-on approach and spends a considerable amount of time out in the field, which makes us more agile and allows us to provide a lot of on-site training.
Another thing I believe sets Central States apart is that we do a lot to give back to the community and to the areas we serve through charitable contributions and work with various organizations.
Central States Fumigation has more than 40 full-time employees. We customize every customer’s work order to meet and exceed their needs. From sampling, inspection, detection, and remediation, Central States generates its estimates and work orders from several factors, including structure type, structure size, temperature, insect infestation, and length of time to complete job, etc.
For domestic customers, the company offers a number of services, including programs for grain quality management, pest control, and fumigation.
Reprinted from GRAIN JOURNAL January/February 2020 Issue
