A pair of major oilseed crushers in Eastern Canada have called a halt to the joint venture they set up in 2011 to buy crop and sell their finished products.
The North American arm of New York-based agrifood giant Bunge and a Quebec arm of the Malaysian government’s FELDA agency announced Friday they have decided to dissolve their joint marketing venture, Bunge ETGO LP.
Bunge ETGO was meant to handle commercial matters such as “oilseed procurement, product sales and risk management” for Bunge and for FELDA’s Quebec arm, TRT-ETGO (Twin Rivers Technologies-Enterprises de Transformation de Graines Oleagineuses du Quebec).
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The joint venture applied to the commercial business of the two companies’ respective crushing plants at Hamilton, Ont. and Becancour, Que., which the firms continued to operate separately.
But according to Bunge on Friday, the two have agreed it’s now “in the mutual best interests of both partners” to dissolve the Bunge ETGO office, which they set up at Oakville, Ont. with staff from both firms.
The crushers’ commercial activities are to shift back to their respective companies by Aug. 31, Bunge said, noting all of Bunge ETGO’s existing contracts will be honoured.
Sales and purchase contracts booked through Bunge ETGO to be executed after Aug. 31 “will be assigned to the appropriate parent company.”
Meanwhile, suppliers and buyers who want to set up new contracts with either of the two plants will now be directed to “the appropriate person” either at Bunge or TRT ETGO.
The Hamilton and Becancour plants, which are capable of crushing either soybeans or canola, each have crush capacity of about 3,000 tonnes per day.
For its part, the FELDA Global Ventures (FGV) business “realized technical and commercial benefits during the tenure of this partnership and concluded that the objectives of the partnership were achieved,” FGV CEO Tan Sri Dato’ Sabri Ahmad said in Bunge’s release Friday.
“Bunge appreciated the relationship with FGV and looks forward to finding opportunities to work together again,” Bunge North America CEO Todd Bastean said. — AGCanada.com Network
Related story:
Bunge, Twin Rivers form j.v. for oilseed crushers, Dec. 12, 2011
