SWISS mining and commodities powerhouse, Glencore International, has continued to offload assets from its recent Viterra acquisition, selling Australia's Joe White Maltings business to global farm and food products giant, Cargill.
Cargill Australia managing director Philippa Purser said her company was recently informed by the Foreign Investment Review Board (FIRB) that the federal government had no objections to the acquisition.
"We have now concluded the transaction," she said.
"We are delighted with this new opportunity in the malting industry and look forward to bringing our malt industry expertise and additional capital to Joe White Maltings."
Joe White - one of two malt operators in Australia - was previously part of ABB Grain before the company was absorbed into Canadian and Australian-listed business Viterra.
Viterra, Canada's largest grain company, was taken over by Glencore in a $6.1 billion deal concluded last December.
Glencore confirmed at the time that it was set to on-sell some Viterra assets to other parties including Canadian farm services giant Agrium.
In Australia Agrium subsidiary, Landmark, picked up Viterra Australia's agriproducts and wool businesses in May, including fertiliser import operations in South Australia and Victoria and seed breeding facilities at Horsham, Victoria.
Ms Purser said US-based Cargill had demonstrated its a long-term commitment to the future and success of Australian agriculture and farmers through successive investments here over many years.
Its Australian agribusiness was established in 1967 and now involves grain and cotton origination, the AWB grain storage and trading business, vegetable oil refining and meat production and processing operations.
The 150-year-old Cargill intended to continue to grow its new malt venture which would ultimately benefit local barley growers, domestic and international customers and Joe White employees, Ms Purser said.
President of Cargill's global malt business, Doug Eden, said the acquisition provided Cargill with a global footprint in all key global barley production areas.
"We are now in a position to provide better opportunities for our Australian farmer customers and better meet the needs of our global and leading regional brewers," he said.
Cargill's global activities involve about 142,000 employees in 67 countries.
