Kansas City, Mo. ? Farmland Industries Inc. made some miscalculations during its aggressive expansion in the 1990s, but the growth was necessary to make the cooperative competitive, the man who led the company through that decade said.

Farmland cited the debt taken on to pay for that expansion as a factor in its Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection filing May 31.

The expansion, however, shifted Farmland toward food processing, now its most successful business, Harry Cleberg, Farmland’s chief executive from 1991 until his retirement in August 2000, said.

“Had we not embarked on a growth strategy, we would have had a whole lot of other problems,” Cleberg said. “For the benefit of owners and employees, there was an orderly transition to put more emphasis on food, and away from petroleum refining and fertilizer.

“We know now we took on too much debt,” Cleberg said. “But if the (economy) had remained anywhere near what it had been, this would not have happened.”