Bunge and Chevron buy Argentine seed firm

a high oil content. Traditionally used for paint and soap production, the oil is also used in human and animal nutrition and in biofuel production.

According to its website, Chacraservicios currently has its own plant for the extraction of camelina oil in Pigue and a seed processing and storage plant in Pergamino, Buenos Aires province.

Global agribusiness giant Bunge and US multinational energy corporation Chevron have acquired Argentine seed firm Chacraservicios from Italian energy company Adamant

Group for an undisclosed sum.

Founded in 2003, Chacraservicios – later bought by the Adamant Group in 2019 – cultivates Camelina sativa (pictured), a cover crop with

“Investing in this new oilseed crop is another step towards our goal of expanding lower carbon intensity feedstocks to help meet growrenewable fuels demand,” Bunge said on 5 July.

Bunge said it would provide Chacraservicios with toll crushing tolling services.

Argentina ramps up soya imports from Brazil and Paraguay

Argentina imported 3M tonnes of soyabeans from neighbouring Brazil and Paraguay in the first four months of this year, according to a report by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA).

The increase in Argentine imports came against a backdrop of a severe drought in the South American country, with forecast soyabean production reduced by a further 2M tonnes in June to 25M tonnes, the lowest level in more than two decades, the USDA Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS) Oilseeds: World Markets and Trade report said.

While soyabean production in Argentina was forecast down 43% compared to 2021/22, crushing was only projected to be 23% lower, mainly due to strong demand from Argentine crushers.

“Monthly crush[ing] has been slower than past years, but crushers have been able to procure soyabeans due to “soy dollar” exchange rate policies that incentivised farmer selling earlier in the year and strong imports of soyabeans over the past few months,” the USDA said.

According to data from the Argentina National Institute of Statistics, increased volumes brought Argentina’s total October-September imports to a record 8.7M tonnes.

EU: Investigative reporting platform the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), has reported on multiple alleged cases of fraudulent sales of mislabelled biofuels in northern Europe.

In one alleged case, Bosnian company Sistem Ecologica had reportedly sold US soyabean biodiesel mislabelled as next-generation fuel made of used cooking oil (UCO), the OCCRP said on 4 July.

According to Bosnian investigators quoted in the report, Sistem Ecologica had supplied 17 companies in nine EU member states –including biofuels dealers who had also reportedly been selling fraudulent UCO in the Netherlands and the UK – over several years.

FRANCE: French President Emmanuel Macron said in a speech made on 16 June that a third French bio-refinery would be built in Pardies as part of a series of investments to decarbonise aviation by French start-up company Elyse Energy, with partners Avril, Axens, Bionext and IFP Investissements, S&P Global wrote.

The plant would have a total capacity of 110,000 tonnes/year of biofuels including 75,000 tonnes/ year of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) and 35,000 tonnes/year of bio-naphtha, according to the report.