Switzerland & Germany: Ameropa AG to end its involvement in malting barley trading

Swiss-based grain trading group Ameropa AG said on March 16 it will end its involvement in malting barley trading and close its Hamburg-based malting barley trading house Interbrau GmbH at the end of 2017, the Country Guide reported.

“This decision is mainly driven by the fact that the malting barley market did not develop as Ameropa had expected and there are too little commonalities between the malting barley trade and Ameropa’s core business,” Ameropa said in a statement.

Ameropa said its core business consisted of trading fertilizers, wheat, corn and oilseeds.

“These are areas where Ameropa identified significant growth potential on which Ameropa would like to focus,” Ameropa said. “Interbrau therefore will stop its trading activities by the end of 2017.”

All existing contracts will be honoured and that the 2016 harvest program will be executed as planned, it added.

Hamburg-based Interbrau deals with producers in Europe’s most important barley-growing countries including Germany, France, Denmark, Sweden, United Kingdom and the Czech Republic as well as worldwide with companies in Latin America, Australia and Canada, Interbrau’s website says.

Interbrau GmbH, formed in Hamburg in 1961, has been a subsidiary of Ameropa since July 2009, the website says.

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