Cargill Building French Rapeseed Plant

NEW YORK - May 4/06 - SNS -- Cargill plans to spend over 50 million euro to build a rapeseed crushing plant at its existing site at the port of Montoir in western France.

The investment will be made through a joint venture with Sofiprotéol, a financial holding company focusing on the development of oilseed production and outlets for their producers. Cargill will be the majority shareholder and assume all managerial and operational responsibilities. Construction is expected to commence by the end of 2006.

The plant will crush up to 600,000 metric tons (MT) of rapeseed per year. This will generate to up to 250,000 MT per year of rapeseed oil, with most being used for biodiesel production; and around 350,000 MT of rapeseed meal for sale on local feed markets.

Up to 80% of the oil will be transferred via pipeline to Diester – a sister company of Sofiprotéol – for use in biodiesel production. The investment will allow the two companies to meet the quota allocated to them by the French government.

The quota allocation followed the French government's decision in September 2005 to promote and advance the development of biofuels in the country. The government has prescribed the use of 5.75% of biofuels in fuel by 2008, with the target rising to 7% in 2010 and 10% in 2015.

The new plant will supplement Cargill's existing food operations in St Nazaire, which specialise in the crushing and refining of sunflower oil and which represent more than half of the national production of sunflower oil. Meanwhile, Cargill's plant in Brest will focus on rapeseed and soya production for use in animal feed and biofuels.

Production at Montoir is scheduled to commence in 2008, by which time Cargill expects to crush a total of 1,750,000 MT of rapeseed, soya and sunflowerseeds at its St Nazaire, Brest and Montoir sites. The rapeseed crush in Montoir is expected to create about 30 permanent jobs, in addition to the 500 people currently employed both directly and indirectly at Cargill's existing operations in Montoir and St Nazaire.