Cargill buys big stake in Chilean salmon farmer

Cargill, the giant US based feed and commodities trader, is moving into the salmon farming business.

The Cargill Group has agreed to acquire a 24.5% stake in the salmon farming subsidiary of Chile’s Multiexport Foods (trading as Multi X)  for around US $290m (£220m), it was announced at the weekend.

Chile is the world’s second largest salmon producer after Norway and Cargill, while employs 155,000 people across 70 countries, is a leading supplier of salmon feed.

At the same time it was announced that the large Japanese trading company Mitsui, which has been a shareholder in Multi X since 2015, is increasing its stake in Multi X by 1.13%, to 24.5%.

Multi X will receive a total of US $303.3m (£231m) from both investments.

José Ramón Gutiérrez, Chairman of Multiexport Foods S.A., a pioneer and leader of salmon farming in Chile, said: “Adding Cargill as a new partner of Multi X will be a strategic and decisive step in the next stage of development of the company and its purpose to win over the world’s consumers with high-quality, value-added, sustainable products sold under our brands ‘Multi X’, ‘Arka’ and ‘Latitude 45’.”

He added: “We welcome Cargill, with their 156-year track record of growth and success, as well as a purpose and values that align with ours.

“Together with Cargill and Mitsui, and our talented and passionate collaborators, we will combine capabilities and strengths for a sustainable development of Multi X and deepen our commitment to the southern regions of Chile.”

Tim Noonan, managing director of Cargill’s seafood business, said: “At Cargill, we seek to be a differentiated leader in the seafood industry, combining innovation with operational excellence to enable greater affordability and integrity of supply chains for our customers and consumers.

“This partnership is an important next step in the development of our seafood strategy and will leverage our capabilities across the value chain, including consumer insights, culinary innovation, value-added processing know-how, risk management, and fish nutrition and health solutions.

“As a result, we hope to provide more customers and consumers with access to Multi X’s high-quality portfolio of private label and branded salmon products.”