Dive Brief:
- Mitsui & Co (USA) Inc. acquired 50% of the shares of Bluegrass Farms of Ohio Inc. from its CEO, David Martin, who owned 100% of shares. The deal is valued at about $15 million.
- Bluegrass, founded in 1988, specializes in non-GMO soybeans, and in the fall of 2015 began processing non-GMO corn. The company had about $34 million in sales for the fiscal year ended September 2014, with more than 75% of the non-GMO soybeans going to Japan. Mitsui has had a business relationship with Bluegrass for about 10 years, handling over 40% of Bluegrass products.
- In Japan the Mitsui & Co. group supplies a large share of non-GMO soybeans. The two companies want to take advantage of growing worldwide demand for food made from non-GMO grains.
Dive Insight:
Companies offering non-GMO options stand to capitalize on the current consumer demand for non-GMO products.
"We're going to grow this business. We've been in alignment for 10 years and now we're taking it to the next step. We're going to do additional Asian business and U.S. domestic business," said Bluegrass CEO David Martin.
