Quebec dairy processing co-op Agropur plans to restart its export development business by buying a Montreal-based trading house to spearhead it.
Agropur on Monday announced it has bought M. Larivée International inc. (MLI) for an undisclosed sum and hired MLI’s owner Marcel Larivée to manage the recreated Agropur Export Group.
The MLI deal “will allow us, as a first step, to recreate the Agropur Export Group and develop international markets with our own products,” Agropur chairman Serge Riendeau said in a release.
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The deal “goes hand in hand with our desire to develop the export market,” Agropur CEO Robert Coallier said in the same release, and will “significantly accelerate our development as well as access very promising markets.”
The new export group will be “integrated” into Agropur’s cheese and ingredients division, the co-op said. The cheese and ingredients division today exports into South America, Asia, the U.K. and European Union and lists Germany, Norway and Sweden as its “targeted” markets.
MLI, which also has offices in Los Angeles, Chicago, Seoul and Toronto, brokers ingredient supplies and logistics for products including cheeses, butter, milk powders and blends, whey products and casein.
The trading house also handles meat products from Canada, the U.S. and Mexico. — AGCanada.com Network
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Agropur sales rise, patronage dividends slip, Feb. 13, 2013
