With another acquisition, Cargill advances in fish feed

Cargill, the world's largest agribusiness company, yesterday announced the acquisition of the Norwegian EWOS, which produces salmon feed. Closed for $ 1.5 billion, the purchase is the second largest in the history of 150 years of American multinational and marks its entry into another area of a segment that is expanding in its portfolio, which is aquaculture.
With the deal, the American company will take over seven factories strategically located in key global markets for salmon farming (Canada, Norway, Chile and Scotland) and also in Viet Nam, where the EWOS's portfolio is concentrated in tilapias. In total, the Norwegian company produced 1.2 million tonnes of feed in 2014.
According to Gorjan Nikolik, senior analyst of Rabobank International, Cargill is positioned in this way, among the three largest manufacturers of feed for aquaculture in the world-and no more "very near" the Dutch controlled Nutreco, Skretting, the "number 1" in nutrition focused on aquaculture.
The shot of the Cargill follows in line with the growth in world consumption of fish bred in captivity, which in 2014 topped the extractive fishery species for the first time, according to the FAO, the UN agency. The creation of salmon grew by over 30% in five years, to 2.5 million tonnes.
"The investment in this strategic transaction and proves our commitment to aquaculture," he said in a statement, the global CEO of Cargill, David MacLennan. The multi already have nutrition for fish factories in India and China and announced, in June, a joint venture of US $ 30 million with the Naturisa for the construction of a shrimp feed in Ecuador. In 2011, had bought, for $ 2 billion, Provimi, and later showed interest in Nutreco leader, although it has not ratified a proposal by the company.