Cargill Enters Brazilian Joint Venture

NEW YORK - May 20/05 - SNS -- Cargill has agreed in principle to invest in the Açucareira Corona sugar mills through a joint venture with Crystalsev and Fluxo.

The joint venture would encompass Açucareira Corona's Bonfim and Tamoio mills, the company's lands, long-term leases and customer portfolio as well as approximately 7,000 employees.

Açucareira Corona is made up of the Bonfim mill in Guariba and the Tamoio mill in Araraquara, both in the state of São Paulo, and is among the country's largest sugar complexes. With this investment, Cargill would be entering the sugar and alcohol production sector in Brazil for the first time.

The Tamoio mill, which produces sugar, has an annual processing capacity of 1.5 million tons of sugar cane, or about 3.5 million 50-kilogram bags. The Bonfim mill, which produces sugar and alcohol, has an annual processing capacity of 4.5 million tons of sugar cane, or 7.5 million 50-kilogram bags of sugar and 190 million liters of alcohol.

The alcohol production is nearly all for the domestic market. Sugar is produced for both the domestic and export markets. Exports are handled by TEAG (the Guarujá Sugar Export Terminal), a joint venture entered into in 2001 between Cargill and Crystalsev.