Japan’s major trading firms are expanding their cereal businesses, with the biggest such move being Marubeni Corp.’s purchase in July of U.S. grain trader Gavilon, which placed it in a league with Cargill Inc., the globe’s top grain trader.
With both the economies and populations of developing countries expected to grow in the coming years, global demand for cereals is expected to rise sharply. Trading firms are seeking to strengthen their positions in the world’s main cereal-producing countries to enable them to make shipments to Asia and other regions.
“We want to become the world’s top cereal trader by combining Gavilon’s product collection capabilities with Marubeni’s sales network,” Marubeni Chairman Teruo Asada told workers during a visit to Gavilon’s headquarters in Omaha, Neb., at the end of July.