Cargill to Invest $100M to Double Soybean Crush Capacity at its Egyptian Facility

Cargill has announced the company is investing US$100 million to double the crush capacity at its soybean facility in Borg El Arab, Egypt, and to add an additional 42,000 tons of storage at its existing site at the port of Dekheila in Alexandria, in order to be able to better meet the growing demand in the country for soybean meal and vegetable oil.

The added storage at Dekheila, which stores, handles, and discharges imported grain and oilseeds, will increase efficiency and will allow Cargill to optimize its supply chain, resulting in more efficient deliveries to its Borg El Arab site and its Egyptian buyers. In turn, the expansion of its crushing capacity at Borg El Arab will maximize economies of scale and raise efficiency for the company’s production of both soybean oil and meal.

“This investment fits with our strategy of growing our business in Africa and the Middle East,” said Johan Steyn, head of Cargill’s Middle East and Africa grain and oilseeds business in a company release. “The demand for soybean meal and oil continues to grow, and expanding our capabilities in Egypt will enable us to better serve our customers in the local market with high quality products, crushed and produced locally.”

Construction on both the Borg El Arab expansion and the storage expansion at Dekheila will begin in November of this year. The port storage is expected to be completed by the end of 2016 and the crushing project which will enable the site to produce high protein meal, is expected to be completed and operational by mid-2017.

Cargill has been doing business in Egypt since 1994, and has been crushing soybeans in the country since 2004 through its majority stake in the National Vegetable Oils Company (NVOC), supplying soybean meal to the aqua feed and poultry industries.

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