Cargill Closes Coffee Department.

SAO PAOLO, BRAZIL -- Cargill Inc., the largest North American exporter of cereals announced their decision to close their worldwide Coffee Division. In a press statement the company advised that after a through analysis of their coffee business it was concluded that the resources involved should be directed to more profitable areas of operations.

Cargill has been active in the coffee market for over 17 years with commercial operations in all the major producing countries including Brazil, Colombia, Guatemala, Mexico, and India. Trading operations were controlled through their headquarters in Switzerland with representatives and sales offices in all the principal consuming markets. It was reported that the Brazil company had an average annual coffee movement or about 1.2 million bags and total sales (all commodities of about US$2.9 billion or about 5% of Cargill sales worldwide).

It was also announced that ECOM Agroindustrial corporation, the Swiss/Spanish holding company of the commodity branches of Esteve S.A. had negotiated the acquisition of the Coffee Division of Cargill Inc., as well as their unshipped coffee commitments. Esteve and Cargill in recent years have been among the top ten exporters of Brazilian green coffee. With the Cargill purchase, ECOM will become the third largest coffee trading firm after the Neumann Gruppe AG of Germany and Volcafe S.A. of Switzerland.

Like Cargill, Pully, Switzerland-based ECOM, is one of the largest closed capital companies.