02/03/2011 at 11: 54 By Michael Pauron
Nestle to invest $ 1 billion on the continent by 2013. Nestle to invest $ 1 billion on the continent by 2013. © Nestlé
Mergers and acquisitions, land purchases, joint ventures ... The continent attracts investors from all over the world assured of finding answers to global food needs that continue to increase. Overview of an attic in the making.
Sugar, oil, cocoa ... not a commodity produced on the continent immune to the appetites of global corporations. Mergers and acquisitions, land purchases, joint ventures ... The industry is changing. ADM, Nestle, Olam, Wilmar, Cargill, Bunge ... Americans, Europeans, Asians ... all are present and, for some, 2010 was the year of the conquest of Africa.
Among the latest transactions to date, the Leader of beer in Africa, French Castel, which bought January 3, 1945% stake in the agro-industrial group Somdiaa present in the sugar industry in the Congo - Brazzaville, Cameroon and Chad. Objective: To be a champion of agro-industry in the CEMAC (Economic and Monetary Community of Central Africa).
In fact, sugar, driven by rising prices, the subject of a series of operations in recent months on the continent. The French Cristal Union has made its first investment in Africa Algeria, launching construction of a refinery near Algiers with his local counterpart La Belle. Faced with overproduction European invest outside the Old Continent including the French group can escape to virtual export ban imposed by Brussels.
Needs
The huge business opportunities are real and satisfy all the needs of local investment as a necessity to find new resources to meet growing global demand. According to estimates by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), nothing in the south of the Sahara, the total cumulative investment agriculture would amount to 940 billion dollars by 2050 (about 700 billion euros), 66% allocated to agro-industries: 207 billion for the first stage of processing, 159 billion for facilities Rural markets and large, 115 billion for energy sources and materials, 78 billion devices for cold chain and storage, and 59 billion for mechanization.
The needs are enormous. "The development of agro-industry in Africa will require a massive injection of investment in fixed capital and working capital," notes its Framework Programme Initiative for development of agribusiness and agro-industries in Africa (3ADI). In Focus: private investors.
The world's leading food Nestle noted. Not only the Swiss group (2.6 billion euros in sales in Africa) has secured its supplies to reduce and stabilize the prices of its raw materials, but he also wants to benefit from the rise of middle classes for its products.
Consequences: The group will invest $ 1 billion by 2013, both in plants (Ghana, Algeria, Nigeria, Congo, Angola, Mozambique ...) than in the production sectors ("Nescafé plan" and "plan cocoa). With the objective of retaining planters and buy them online (Cargill is now the main supplier), by 2015, nearly half of its supplies, is 23 000 t 50 000. His latest factory opening in February in Nigeria has required an investment of 94 million. And next, at the end of the month in the DR Congo, at a cost of $ 40 million.
Facing the Swiss group, the most impressive offensive is no doubt Asia. With eight operations in one year, Singapore's Olam already generates nearly $ 1 billion in sales on the continent.
In his wake, his compatriot Wilmar (nearly $ 30 billion market capitalization) is also trying to establish itself as a leading player in Africa. In December 2010, the group specializes in oil palm has announced the creation of two joint ventures in Nigeria with English PZ Cussons. A palm oil refinery and a distribution branch (including margarine) mobilize some $ 27.5 million and 27 million next Wilmar PZ Cussons side. In February, the multinational has also paid the Ghana Benso Oil Palm Plantation (58.45% owned by Unilever U.S.), for 14 million euros.
And it's not over. It is in neighboring Liberia that the Malaysian Sime Darby came to live - for the first time in Africa - to plant 10 000 hectares (over 220,000 ha concession for a period of sixty-three years) and invest more than 16 million.
A tank for China
The Chinese giant could not remain inactive. Olives Tunisian Ugandan coffee, peanut oil Senegalese, Ethiopian sesame seeds ... Beijing, the domestic demand for food keeps growing and production areas, to the benefit of scarce industrial areas, is initially a client become greedy. But the idea of the Middle Kingdom is now to take advantage of African needs in financing and technology to establish itself as a producer, and thus overcoming intermediates while increasing its supplies made in Africa.
Today, the primary resource - oil and mining - accounted for 90% of Chinese imports from the mainland, cons only 3% for agribusiness. "Africa can become a reservoir of food for the 1.3 billion Chinese," said Andrew Leung Kinpong, analyst at South China Morning Post (Hong Kong). In fact, the movement has already begun: the agri-food exports to South Africa (second African country after partner Beijing Angola) to China have more than doubled in 2010 compared to 2009, reaching over 65 million dollars. Europeans and Americans had better watch out.
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