Cargill to sell two European oilseed processing facilities to Bunge

Global agribusiness Cargill has announced that it will sell two of its European-based oilseed processing plants and businesses to Bunge.

The plants are based in the Netherlands and France.

In the Netherlands, the transaction includes the soybean and rapeseed crush and soybean oil refining facility in the Port of Amsterdam as well as part of the bulk port terminal assets dedicated to supporting discharge and storage of raw materials for the crush plant.

In France, it includes the soybean and rapeseed crush facility located in the Port of Brest. The aggregate annual processing capacity at the two locations is approximately two million tons.

In a statement, Cargill said that the assets are” highly complementary” to Bunge's existing soy processing operations in Europe, and will allow Bunge to further expand its global oilseed processing footprint into key Northern European destinations, grow its presence in Europe's protein market, and further optimize global flows and logistics to serve customers.

Industrial operations and business activities will be integrated within Bunge's Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) regional operations and global soy crush platform, and Bunge is looking forward to welcoming the experienced and skilled employees of the two sites.

Oil from oilseed crops can serve as a feedstock for biodiesel production.

Cargill will retain its two other soybean processing facilities in Western Europe, in the ports of Barcelona in Spain and Liverpool in the UK, as these plants are firmly integrated with a number of Cargill's other businesses serving local customers in the food and feed sectors in Spain and the UK.

Cargill has an extensive network of plants processing and refining other oilseeds and tropical oils across Europe and it continues to focus on serving its customers and growing its longer term business in this region.

Employees associated with the business (120 in the Netherlands and 51 in France) will transfer to Bunge.

Cargill is now informing and consulting its employee representative bodies in the Netherlands and France.

This article was written by Liz Gyekye, editor of Biofuels International.