Once it starts operating the silo, Prio will climb onto the second position in the ranking of oil producers of southern Romania, which have their own storage facilities, behind Expur Urziceni, which cumulates a storage capacity of 230,000 tons in several silos.
Prio will thus compete with other companies on the market–such as Expur, Prutul Galati, Argus Constanta or Ultex Tandarei–for the acquisition of rapeseed and sunflower seeds from Romanian farmers.
While the other companies chose to have several storage facilities in several counties, Prio concentrated its entire storage capacity in one place.
In Lehliu, Prio Extractie processes rapeseed and sunflower seeds to make vegetable oil for industrial use, as well as for cooking.
The company’s plant has a capacity of 316,000 tons of vegetal oil per year and 340,000 tons of grist. The Portuguese-held company is set to purchase around 800,000 tons of rapeseed and sunflower seeds each year from Romanian farmers, according to ZF estimates, taking into account a 40% yield of production of oil from seeds.
To that end, Prio in July took out a EUR31 million loan from BCR to acquire the seeds to be processed in the Lehliu Gara plant. The company did not specify the period over which the sum is budgeted.
(English version by Catalina Apostoiu)