World Grain - August 2012 - 17

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Sodrugestvo, Mitsui form strategic grain alliance
LUXEMBOURG — Sodrugestvo Group S.A. announced on July 2 an agreement in which Mitsui & Co., Ltd. has become a 10% shareholder in Sodrugestvo. The companies will become strategic partners in some of their respective business activities. The details of the transaction were not disclosed. Mitsui’s 10% stake in Sodrugestvo is based on an enterprise value of approximately $2.2 billion. In conjunction with the share purchase by Mitsui, the two global companies have signed a strategic agreement whose main elements include: 1) an alliance in the origination, export and marketing of grain from Russia and other former Soviet Union countries; 2) support for Mitsui’s participation in the feed and livestock business in Russia and other former Soviet Union countries where the demand for and production of meat has been growing; and 3) a collaboration in the soybean origination, processing and distribution business in Brazil between Sodrugestvo’s Alianca (previously known as Carol-Sodru) joint venture and Mitsui’s Multigrain grain farming and logistics subsidiary. The collaboration in the origination and export of grain produced in Russia and other former Soviet Union countries provides a preferential right to Mitsui for grain supplied/exported by Sodrugestvo. Mitsui plans to develop marketing outlets for the grain in the Middle East and Africa as well as with existing clients mainly located in Japan and Asia. In addition, Mitsui will share its expertise in the international grain trading business with Sodrugestvo as well as provide global market intelligence from its global trading network. “Mitsui is one of the world’s most respected, multi-industry companies with over a century of global business experience. Mitsui meets the criteria for strategic partnerships that we have developed,” said Stephane Frappat, chief executive ofﬁcer of Sodrugestvo. “Sodrugestvo seeks best of breed companies that know the market, have a strategic plan that syncs with ours but doesn’t compete and shares a long-range vision for marketplace expansion.”

FAO opens liaison office for producers’ organizations
ROME, ITALY — The United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said on July 9 that it has opened a new liaison ofﬁce for cooperatives and producer organizations in order to revitalize the organization’s collaboration with these organizations worldwide. The opening came a few days after the International Day of Cooperatives, celebrated on July 7. “We are conﬁdent that this liaison ofﬁce will allow cooperatives and producer organizations to have a stronger voice as FAO’s key partners in ending hunger and poverty,” said FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva at the opening ceremony, which was attended by representatives of the International Cooperative Alliance and the World Farmers Organization. “Cooperatives and producer organizations have a key role to play in bringing about a future without hunger,” he said. “Standing alone, a smallholder has fewer opportunities. When farmers get together, they have better condition to negotiate of price and better access to assets and services such as information, communication, input and output markets, natural resources, from local to international levels.” FAO in partnership with producer organizations and cooperatives will continue to encourage governments to establish favorable policies, legal frameworks, economic incentives and participatory processes in which agricultural and food cooperatives as well as producer organizations develop and become strong, equitable and efﬁcient enterprises.
www.World-Grain.com / World Grain / August 2012

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World Grain - August 2012

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