The agreement is for a period of five years, with Cargill appointed as UPT's exclusive agent for the sales and marketing of pulse proteins in North America for the animal feed sector and UPT as the exclusive supplier of these ingredients to Cargill for this sector for the term of the agreement.
"We are very pleased to announce this agreement with Cargill as the first for our pet food and branded feed ingredient platform. We have commented on a number of occasions that we are excited about the profile of pulses as ingredients for protein, fibre and starch, and many of our customers agree with us on this. The fact that a major company like Cargill, with their position in the market, concurs with us on the potential opportunities for pulse ingredients and have entered into this agreement with us, which demonstrates that this new line of business is a positive and exciting development for us," said Murad Al-Katib, president and chief executive officer of AGT. "Whether for human consumption or for animal feed, pulses are nutrient dense, non-GMO, gluten-free, high protein and fiber products with a desirable combination and untapped potential for the global food market. We are hopeful that further opportunities like this will arise and that they will have a positive impact on our earnings as the opportunities are pursued."
"Our agreement with Cargill is the first step towards realizing the opportunities that our new pulse ingredient platform provides. These ingredients provide added value to the pulses and staple foods products we are already producing and exporting around the globe. We expect that this new platform may assist in making AGT one of the preferred suppliers of ingredients critical to food companies producing branded products for feed applications, as Cargill is doing, and for retail and foodservice sale to consumers around the globe," said Huseyin Arslan, executive chairman of the AGT board. "The size and scale of our planned operations in the food ingredient area, with Minot being the first facility planned to produce these products, we expect will assist us to capitalize on synergies from our other lines of business and demonstrate our strategy to grow this business unit."
AGT, with its new Minot, North Dakota, U.S., pulses ingredient processing facility set to begin commissioning in late first quarter 2013, is expected to commence production in its first North American industrial scale, pulses ingredient processing and production facility producing protein, fiber, starch and flour derived from legumes including lentils, peas, chickpeas and beans for human food, food ingredient and animal feed including pet food applications. Sales and marketing activities by Cargill covered under this agreement are expected to begin shortly.
