World Grain - October 2012 - 23

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Argentina to increase maize exports
ROME, ITALY — Argentina will export an additional 2.75 million tonnes of maize from its 2011-12 crop, the country’s Minister of Agriculture Norberto Yauhar told United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organization’s (FAO) Director-General José Graziano da Silva when they met at FAO headquarters on Sept. 14. This will increase the amount of maize to be exported by Argentina from that harvest to 16.45 million tonnes. “The additional shipments, together with recent better-than-expected ﬁgures from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, should help ease tight international markets,” Yauhar said. Argentina, the world’s second biggest maize exporter, was responsible for roughly 15% of the world’s maize exports in the last three years. “This goes to show that there is no threat of a global food crisis at present, although we must continue to be vigilant and monitor the situation closely,” Graziano da Silva said. The minister spoke about the prospects for the upcoming harvest, noting that the outlook for both rainfall and plantings of maize and soybeans were very positive. He added that Argentina has already earmarked 15 million tonnes of maize and 5 million tonnes of wheat for export for the 2012-13 season. Minister Yauhar also noted that Argentina maintains reserves of 1 million tonnes of maize and 1 million tonnes of wheat. “For FAO, maintaining food security reserves is a very good strategy that contributes to the stability of domestic prices of food,” said Graziano da Silva. Yauhar added that during an ofﬁcial mission to China in September he and the Chinese Minister of Agriculture discussed the possibility of having strategic food security reserves at the regional and international levels.

DSM in talks to acquire Cargill’s cultures business
HEERLEN, NETHERLANDS — Royal DSM announced on Sept. 20 that it is in exclusive discussions with Cargill which may or may not result in the acquisition of Cargill’s cultures and enzymes business by DSM. The cultures and enzymes business of Cargill is a global leading manufacturer of cultures and enzymes for the dairy and meat industries with manufacturing operations in Wisconsin (U.S.) and France. It has a strong pipeline of new products built on three pillars of technology: culture texture toolbox, fast acidiﬁcation for cheese yield improvements and culture ﬂavor systems. The business generates net sales of about €45 million per year with approximately 200 employees. The global market for cultures and enzymes is valued at over €1 billion, growing steadily at more than 5% per annum. A possible combination of the Cargill cultures and enzymes business with the dairy business of DSM Food Specialties would be highly complementary, creating a strong global player and enabling DSM to propel sales growth as well as capture sizable synergies in global manufacturing footprint, customer reach as well as innovation capabilities in biotechnology and SG&A. A successful acquisition of the Cultures and Enzymes business of Cargill would be the eighth acquisition in the Nutrition cluster since DSM announced its corporate strategy called “DSM in motion”: driving focused growth in September 2010. These acquisitions form an integral part of DSM’s strategy for its Nutrition cluster and will contribute to the current and future growth of DSM’s attractive portfolio in health, nutrition and materials. Cargill conﬁrmed the exclusive discussion with DSM on the potential sale.
For more information, see Page 110.

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World Grain - October 2012

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