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The Brazilian business newspaper, Valor Econômico, has highlighted the export performance presented by Agrenco Group, including the company among a select group of 16 Brazilian companies which registered a strong growth in the external market last year, despite a weak dollar.
The Agrenco Group, which operates in the agrobusiness sector, is represented in Malta by Finacom, its financial and treasury subsidiary, of The Park Lane Buildings, G’Mangia,
The result presented by Agrenco Group is highly superior than the average Brazilian exports performance, which increased 22.6% in 2005, even with a strengthening of 13.4% of the Brazilian Real in the period.
Valor Econômico reported that, last year, Agrenco Group increased its export by 217%, from US$ 99 million at the end of 2004, to US$ 315 million in 2005. The Group is expected to have a turnover of US$ 1.4 billion this year, with Agrenco do Brasil being responsible for half of it.
Specialised in providing services in the grains segment - logistics, warehousing and world distribution - Agrenco changed its method of operation at the end of 2004. It started to sell packages of integrated solutions to its clients. “Before, it used to take 15 days to load a soybean vessel. Today, our average loading rate is of 2.8 days,” said Antonio Iafelice, global president of the group. “We are exploring a niche in a distinct way.”
Combined to the loading efficiency, there is another factor. Agrenco has closed a deal with the Japanese group Marubeni. The giant of the agribusiness has purchased 25.5% of Terlogs Terminal (located in São Francisco do Sul), opening the doors to Agrenco to place the Brazilian agricultural products in the Asian market. As a result, exports for that region totaled US$ 460 million, responding for half of Agrenco’s revenue last year. ‘We have a fast growing rate in Taiwan, Japan and South Korea. We proved that we had a good storage structure and, for the first time, Asia has purchased grains during the whole year, not only during the harvest period. We conquered market share more than the Americans,” he said.
Although many exporters complained about 2005, at Agrenco nothing seemed so terrible. Even the problems caused by a drought in some Brazilian States, which shortened the crop, had a positive effect: it resulted in better market prices. And the losses caused by the currency rate were balanced by a somewhat bigger cut of costs. “This way, a weak dollar has not affected at all our performance,” said Iafelice. “The group’s profit more than doubled in 2005, reached US$ 20 million.” |
