Two of the world's largest agricultural products trading companies want to merge: American Bunge Global SA and Dutch competitor Viterra Limited. As reported by Reuters and Handelsblatt, the holding companies have made commitments to divest their plants in Poland and Hungary in order to obtain approval from the EU antitrust office for the planned merger. According to reports from Reuters, these are oil mills in both countries.
Previous reports on this matter indicated that both giants agreed to limit their presence in Europe to get rid of accusations from agricultural organizations of limiting competition on agricultural markets in the EU. Now, however, it has become clear what sacrifices both mega-companies are willing to make. It is already known that the holding companies have submitted an appropriate undertaking to the European Commission regarding the merger. The EC postponed the deadline for considering the merger application to August 1.
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Will there be a merger of giants on the grain market?
The concerns remained
Bunge and Viterra would be worth about $34 billion together. The common goal of the companies is to reduce the gap with such global giants in the trade of agricultural raw materials as Archer-Daniels-Midland (ADM) and Cargill.
But the planned merger, which was announced almost a year ago, has raised concerns among competition authorities and agricultural industry organizations in both North America and Europe. The National Council of Agricultural Chambers in Poland and industry associations also opposed this merger.
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Bunge and Viterra also in Poland
Bunge is a New York Stock Exchange-listed company headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri. The group specializes in the production and sale of oil meals and vegetable oils. It also trades corn, wheat, barley and milling products, i.e. wheat flour, as well as sugar and unprocessed oilseeds.
In Poland, Bunge has two oil mills – in Kruszwica and Brzeg, a plant for the production of vegetable fats in Karczew, and a port terminal in Świnoujście. The company employs over 1,000 people in Poland.
Viterra is headquartered in Rotterdam and is owned by Glencore, CPP Investments, BCI and VEBT. The company focuses on the purchase and sale of unprocessed agricultural raw materials, in particular cereals and oilseeds. In Poland, Viterra has several companies (Viterra Silos, Viterra Szczecin and Viterra Bodaczów) that purchase grain and oilseeds, dry them, store them, and transhipment of grains and meals.
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Bunge and Viterra merger. A giant worth approximately USD 34 billion 
