The American group Viserion invests in the Port de Barcelona

The historic soybean crushing plant that the American group Cargill owns in the Port of Barcelona changes ownership. Another American multinational, Viserion International, has acquired the factory, which it plans to transform into an alternative protein plant to supply this emerging sector within the food industry.

The operation has been carried out through Elian Barcelona, a subsidiary of Viserion, a company owned by a fund of the New York-based manager Pinnacle Asset Management focused on global commodity markets. According to Expansión, the goal is to modernize the plant, which has turned 50 years old, and expand it in the medium term to complete the industrial process with the manufacturing of concentrated and textured protein, a key ingredient for making plant-based alternative foods and high-quality feed. In all of Europe, there are currently only two soybean concentration and texturization plants located in the Netherlands and Serbia, and they belong to the ADM group.

Located in Moll Álvarez de la Campa, Cargill's crushing plant  processes more than 700,000 tons of soybeans per year, mainly from the US and Brazil, and extracts flour and oil from this legume. It employs 69 people and generates an annual business exceeding 400 million dollars. The plant serves the Catalan, Spanish, and European feed and food ingredient markets. The closing of the purchase by Elian is expected for the first quarter of 2024, once regulatory approval from the Port Authority of Barcelona has been obtained, as it is a public concession.

This factory in the Port of Barcelona will become Viserion's first large European facility, a group based in Boulder (Colorado) with an annual turnover of around 4,000 million dollars.  The expansion project, which will require 25,000 square meters of additional surface area, is expected to be ready in 2026. It is estimated that the global workforce will exceed one hundred people when the production of plant protein begins.

"We are proud to acquire and advance this important Catalan processing plant as we build a more resilient food system across Europe," said Andrés Martín, founder and CEO of Elian Barcelona and former executive of the Dutch multinational Bunge. "Sustainability is our core value, and we believe that this strategic asset, together with Viserion's scale, resources, and experience, will allow us to better align our services with consumers and food system trends, improve European food security, and withstand supply chain disruptions," added the executive, who thanked ACCIÓ, the agency for business competitiveness of the Generalitat de Catalunya, for the support received.

"The acquisition of this strategically located plant, key to Catalonia's food supply, deepens Viserion International's long-term commitment to the European market," emphasized Viserion CEO Aaron Wiegand. "We believe that the incorporation of this crushing facility is a very good opportunity to expand the Viserion platform and to accelerate its continuous investment in the critical European food and feed supply chain. Pinnacle welcomes the Elian Barcelona group and looks forward to continuing to support the Viserion team by sharing our deep expertise in this sector," added Jason Kellman, managing partner and chief investment officer of Pinnacle.

According to Expansión, the Lleida-based livestock and meat group Vall Companys and Zyrcular Foods, its alternative protein subsidiary, are involved in Elian's project in the Port of Barcelona, as are Semillas Batlle, Metalquimia, the Cooperativa de Artesa de Segre, and the Universitat de Lleida.