HTC pairs with Ardent Mills to continue chickpea legacy

OTHELLO – The Hinrichs Trading Company, a division of Ardent Mills, knows a lot about chickpeas, or garbanzo beans as they are also called. HTC manages the complete chickpea production from cleaning and packaging to shipping - to now chickpea flour.

“Before, we ended our part of the supply chain at the whole chickpea,” said Kyle Hinrichs, Commercial Operations Manager of Hinrichs Trading Division - Pullman. “Now, as part of Ardent Mills, we have flour facilities. So now we're one more step along that supply chain.”

HTC joined Ardent Mills in June 2021. Hinrich said this was a natural step and one HTC felt comfortable with because of the alignment and shared vision and values of Ardent Mills with HTC.

“When we looked at Ardent Mills, bringing our company and Ardent Mills (together), our real values really lined up with each other,” Hinrichs said. “Some of the values of Ardent Mills are trust, serving, simplicity, and safety, and those really lined up with how HTC looked at its growers, as well as its customers, and I think with them having that in focus, made us feel really good about joining their company.”

Though HTC is based in Pullman, they have five locations - one being in Othello. Othello is a location Hinrichs said is special to their company.

“I would say Othello is one of our favorite locations because it has so much warehouse space and gives us so much flexibility and opportunity,” said Hinrichs.

Hinrichs not only praised the ability to expand because of space but also because of the workforce in the community.

“(It’s) a beautiful property right there in town to where any expansion that we have, we have the space to do it there,” said Hinrichs. “And we have the community and the workforce around it; because that is a big question mark in some areas, is there enough labor force to expand? And when you look in that area, there is quite a bit of a good labor force to continue to add people as you grow.”

Chickpeas are a type of legume, specifically legumes that are grown and harvested for their dry seed and grown as food, which are also known as pulses. Pulses are used in a variety of ways but a lot of them are used in gluten-free alternatives, which are becoming more popular.

“I think a big thing is when (Ardent Mills) look at what the consumer trends are, there's more people looking for gluten-free alternatives,” said Hinrichs. “Pulses really fall into that.”

Pulses are not only something that benefits the consumer but also benefit farmers because they are more sustainable in terms of being able to grow in harsher conditions with little water and are not as hard on the soil because they replenish soil nutrients.

“Pulses are naturally nitrogen-fixating crops, so they really do a good job in that sustainability message as well,” Hinrichs said.

Since joining Ardent Mills, Hinrichs said some successes have been Ardent Mills’ research and development departments being able to translate over to HTC’s chickpea inventory to produce products such as chickpea flour.

Ardent Mills’ website states their chickpea flour is a versatile, protein and fiber-rich alternative to traditional flours and delivers a slight bean and nut-like flavor that pairs well with Amaranth and corn.

Another positive impact of HTC joining Ardent Mills was that there was little to no impact on not just the farmers that produce the chickpeas for HTC, but also little to no impact on the employees of HTC.

“I think one of the key things when (Ardent Mills) acquired HTC was to have as little impact on our growers in any negative form,” said Hinrichs. “All the Hinrichs people that were working at HTC are still working at HTC today.”

Hinrichs also said that joining Ardent Mills has brought additional resources in so that they have been able to better serve their customers and farmers, in a manner that a small family business would have found more difficult.

“Just the leadership and the direction that Ardent Mills heads with those guiding principles really made us feel good about handing this, I’ll call it a legacy, off to Ardent Mills and allowing (us) to be a part of the journey with them and continue to grow it.”

Rebecca Pettingill may be reached at rpettingill@columbiabasinherald.com.