NutraCea Inc., a provider of rice bran products, is building new facilities and adding staff in Phoenix and Brazil to meet growing demand from major cereal and grain companies.

Despite multimillion-dollar losses in four of the past five years, the Phoenix-based public company has increased its total production more than tenfold from 10,000 tons in 2005 to keep up with industry de­mand, said NutraCea President and CEO Brad Edson.

NutraCea's stock, traded over the counter, closed at $1.02 per share April 16 and has ranged from 1 cent to $5.04 in the past year.

The company has seven U.S. patents on technology that takes discarded rice bran, which typically goes rancid within 10 days, and turns it into a flourlike nutritional product that lasts up to a year. The company's process is a sustainable solution to what typically has been an underutilized by-product of white rice production.