Mexico — Bunge Limited has announced that it has completed the sale of seven of its wheat mills in Mexico to Mexico’s largest flour miller Grupo Trimex for an undisclosed sum.
The plants are located in Campeche, Mexico City, Acapulco, Guadalupe, Queretaro, Navojoa and Veracruz. Bunge said it will continue to operate its corn mill in Queretaro and serve its domestic oil and meal customers.
The move continues a recent trend by Bunge to optimize its portfolio to focus on core businesses, which had been a priority of Gregory Heckman, chief executive officer of Bunge, since he joined the company in 2019.
The transaction was first announced in October 2021. At that time Heckman said the wheat milling business in Mexico was not fully integrated “in the way that is critical to successfully serving our customers in line with our long-term sustainable and strategic goals.”
“We believe selling the business to a well-respected wheat miller will provide a great opportunity for our employees as well as our customers,” he said.
In the past two years, Bunge has sold 35 US grain elevators to Zen-Noh Grain Corp., ended its stake in Southwest Iowa Renewable Energy, LLC, and sold its rice mill in California to Farmers’ Rice Cooperative.
We believe selling the business to a well-respected wheat miller will provide a great opportunity for our employees as well as our customers
Although it has divested its Mexico flour milling operations, Bunge still operates seven wheat flour mills in Brazil.
Grupo Trimex, meanwhile, expands its leading market share in wheat flour milling. It now will have 20 flour mills in Mexico that grind three types of wheat — hard, soft and durum.
Founded in 1995 with the merger of four wheat mills in Mexico City, Grupo Trimex began acquiring Mexican mills over the next 20 years, including the acquisition of the wheat flour milling operations of Gruma in 2014.
With a current total of 13 production plants the company said it has an installed milling capacity of around 8,400 tons of wheat per day. The company said it produces 2,400 tonnes of flour daily, making it the largest mill in Spanish America.
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