Cargill completes its first 50 years in our territory
Cargill is an international provider of food, agricultural services and risk management. With 131.000 employees in 66 countries, the company puts its international knowledge and experience at the service of its clients to help them resolve their own particular needs and to achieve success. The company relies on constant innovation and on total quality both in its products and in its industrial processes.
Cargill has been operating in Spain since 1960 where it installed its first plant outside the United States, precisely in Tarragona to crush soybean.
Today the head office of Cargill in Spain is in Catalonia, to be exact in Martorell. The company employs 800 people in our country and has plants in Martorell, Reus, Rubi, Madrid, Seville and Antequera. This last one is through a joint venture with the Andalusia olive oil company, Hojiblanca. Cargill has three crushing plants and two refineries situated in Barcelona Reus and Seville dedicated to the processing of soybean and sunflower seeds to obtain refined oils for human consumption and flour proteins for animal feed. This business unit sub ministers oils from refined seed oils, tropical oils, lauric oils and preparations for special uses.
Another of Cargill’s principal activities carried out in the Sant Cugat del Vallès centre near Barcelona is the domestic and international trading of grains and flour proteins and also agricultural risk management.
Within the distribution and processing activities of food ingredients, Cargill produces glucose and fructose syrups, starches and apirogenetic dextrose at the Martorell and Barcelona plants.
Cargill is one of the world’s most important malt producers. In Spain the plant in Madrid processes imported or domestic grain for the production of high quality malt for the domestic and international beer industry.
What is more the company is world leader in specific texturising solutions with multiple applications for the food and drink sectors based on a wide range of ingredients which include hidrocols, lecithins, starches, soy flour and other functional systems, all this at the CTS plant (Cargill Texturising Solutions) situated in Rubí, Barcelona.
Among their other principal activities at Cargill is that of bottling and commercializing oils both in the consumer and professional sectors and the company is sector leader of private label in Spain. In the Seville plant, the company commercialises private label oils and also under the brand names Agrolés, Amper, Saflor and Triflora.
In October 2007 Cargill and the cooperative Hojiblanca signed a 50-50 joint venture to commercialise and supply clients all over the world with bottled private label and bulk olive oil. This new company is called Mercaóleo and has a state of the art bottling plant in Antequera, Malaga where all the production takes place.
Cargill knows that its continued success depends in a great part on the growth and health of the communities in which it works and the conservation of natural resources.
Social Compromise and the future of the company
As far as social responsibility goes, the company works and collaborates with a diverse group of global, national and local organizations to support responsible economic development, to help protect the environment and to improve communities. For this reason volunteers from Cargill participate in a number of activities such as blood donation, collection of clothing and toys and collaborate with organisations such as The Red Cross or the Foundation of the Food Bank.
As far as the future goes, José María Mateo, Cargill country Manager in Spain says, “We’re efficient if we help our clients to be successful. For us it’s very important to help our clients through our innovation and knowledge. Cargill’s future will always be linked to this.
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