Cargill Inc., the world’s largest agricultural commodities trader, is scouting for deals to access the $400 billion global seafood market.
Dave MacLennan, Cargill’s Chief Executive Officer, said his company already makes fish and shrimp feed, and now it wants to produce and process seafood products. The Minneapolis-based firm, which paid out $1.5 billion in 2015 to buy Norwegian salmon-feed maker EWOS AS, is now in search of new deals. “We have an active game board of opportunities that are at various stages of conversation,” he said. “We want to further integrate with the seafood supply chain, and we don’t own anything yet, but we are scouting for opportunities.”
Seafood consumption is growing faster than any other protein source, including beef, pork and poultry, driven by an expanding and increasingly prosperous global population that recognizes the health benefits of eating seafood. More than half of the seafood consumed these days comes from aquaculture. In 2018, the global seafood market at the first point of sale was worth $401 billion, with $250 billion coming from farmed output, according to the United Nations.
Cargill, already one of the largest providers of feed to the seafood industry, didn’t provide details on how close it is to a potential deal. The company has 38 aquaculture feed facilities in 20 countries, and it is focused on supplying feed to the salmon industry in Norway, Chile, Scotland and North America, as well as tilapia and shrimp producers in places like China, Thailand and Vietnam.
Information: Dave MacLennan, Cargill’s Chief Executive Officer.
Source: Bloomberg. Markets/Cargill Seeks Acquisitions to Enter $400 Billion Fish Market. Isis Almeida. February 7, 2021.