Patberg is a EUR40 million business, which trades more than 200,000 tons of a grain a year.
“We will continue to do what we’ve always done, that is grain export. The Germans did not buy assets, they bought the idea of the business, the business and development plan for the next few years,” Victor Beznea, the new boss of BayWa Romania told ZF.
He is the only former shareholder that will stay on in the company with a 10% stake.
The move of the former Nidera traders to BayWa marks the first new major multinational presence in the local grain trade business four years after the entrance of US-held CHS.
BayWa is a EUR15 billion business trading 25 million tons of grain and oilseeds in one season. The group also has construction and green energy operations.
The grain and oilseeds market stands at more than EUR5 billion a year in Romania. It is attractive because of its 8 million to 9 million ton surplus and the access to the Danube and Black Sea. Romanian agriculture is a EUR17 billion business in the years free of drought.
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)