Cargill acquires vegetable oil refinery in south India

Agri-food producer and trading firm Cargill has acquired a 35,000 t/yr edible oil refinery at Krishnapatnam Port, Nellore in India's southern Andhra Pradesh state.

The facility will refine palm oil, palm olein, sunflower oil and Vanaspati (hydrogenated vegetable oil) for supply to retailers in southern Indian states of Telangana, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh. It will also allow Cargill to produce and package its own edible oil brands for retailers and to serve bakery and foodservice customers in the region, it said.

Total investment of $35mn will go towards acquiring, upgrading and expanding the facility, which Cargill expects to have fully operational by May 2022. It did not reveal who previously owned the refinery.

India is the world's largest importer of edible oils, importing 13mn t during November 2020-October 2021 according to the country's Solvent Extractor's Association, though this was its lowest total in six marketing years. Krishnapatnam received the second largest volume among Indian ports, or 1.52mn t during 2020-21.

Cargill already operates a vegetable oil refinery at Kandla in western Gujarat state, India's main port for edible oil imports that took 3.95mn t during 2020-21.

The firm has another six refineries across the Asia-Pacific, in Pakistan's Karachi, Malaysia's Port Klang and Westport, and China's Nantong, Dongguan and Yangjing. It aims to complete construction of another refinery at Indonesia's Lumpung in late 2022, as part of a drive to increase its vegetable oil refining capacity to integrate and ensure sustainability across its supply chains.

By Lauren Moffitt