Agrenco France, which forms part of the Agrenco group that operates in the agrobusiness sector and is represented in Malta by Finacom Investment House based in Guardamangia, has been approved as supplier of non-GMO soybeans and soymeal to Carrefour, largest European retailer.

Carrefour has started its programme for feeding its branded chickens and pigs with non-GMO ingredients, demanding full traceability since 2000. After a lot of efforts and trials, Agrenco has received its approval and started supplying Carrefour.

France is the biggest importer of soymeal, about 4.5 million of tonnes per year, with 90 per cent coming from Brazil. The Carrefour programme represents a consumption of about 250,000 tons of non-GMO hard IP soymeal.

Agrenco expects to have 10 per cent of market share by 2006. The producer of the soymeal is Imcopa, which have been producing non-GMO meals since 2000. Today, Imcopa produces more than one million tonnes of non-GMO meals, all traded via Agrenco distribution units in Europe.

Based in Brazil but with offices in France, United Kingdom, Italy and Malta, the Agrenco Group specialises in the purchase and sale of agricultural commodities such as soya beans, maize, sugar, cotton and derivatives. The group subsidiaries include Agrenco Brazil (purchase and sale of agricultural commodities), Inlogs (logistics), Finacom (financial services) based in Malta, Agrifreight (freight), IQS (quality control) and Fertlogs (fertilisers).

Established in 1992, Agrenco France has a portfolio of 800 active clients in Europe.

These are customers who buy differentiated products and request differentiated services. Like other multinationals in this sector, Agrenco group’s operations cover from the purchase and sale of the product to the transportation and storage logistics and financing of the producer.