History

2010

Bunge continues expanding by adding five new sugar cane mills to the three existing plants in Brazil. Today, Bunge operates a big sugar and bioenergy enterprise and is capable of producing the most diverse sugar- and ethanol-related products.

2009

Bunge continues to focus on boosting its core business. It starts to build an export terminal in the north-west of the USA, and a soybean processing plant in Vietnam. Moreover, Bunge takes over the Raisio margarine business in Europe and Petrobas fertiliser in Argentina.

2008

Bunge takes over the German margarine producer Walter Rau. Moreover, it extends its sugar business by adding Tate& Lyle’s sugar-trading arm, acquiring the majority stake of a second sugar and ethanol factory in Brazil and investing in sugar/ethanol joint ventures with Itochu in Japan.

2007

Bunge acquires its first sugar cane plant in Brazil and creates a fertiliser joint venture in Morocco.  Bunge also takes over vegetable oil brands in Rumania and a food service brand in Brazil.

2006

Bunge opens a soybean processing plant in the habour of Bilbao, Spain, and a oil packaging plant in Fort Worth, Texas. The company additionally acquires its second soybean processing plant in China.

2005

Bunge acquires its first soy crushing and refining plant in China, in the port Rizhao. Bunge founds a biodiesel joint venture ini Mannheim, Germany, and starts to build a biodiesel plant.

2004

Bunge improves its geographical balance and positions itself for the growth of consumers, meat production and grain export markets in Eastern Europe. The company opens a new harbour in Turkey, starts to build a harbour in Latvia and invests in food products and agribusiness in Russia, Poland and the Ukraine.

2003

Bunge and DuPont bundle their strengths to add value to the agribusiness and the food markets, including an agricultural service for farmers for biotechnological products and protein food ingredients. By acquiring Hindustan Lever Indian Oils and Fats, Bunge continues focussing on growth markets. Due to a high density of population and increasing household incomes, India becomes an important market regarding edible oil consumption.

2002

Bunge acquires Cereol and becomes the world’s largest soy producer and provider of bottled oils for consumers. The takeover converts Bunge into a leading company in Europe, and marks the return to the company’s roots on the European continent.

2001

Bunge goes public (NYSE:. BG). It’s one of the oldest listed companies on the Big Board. Bunge acquires LaPlata grains, the world’s largest exporter of soy bean oil and soy food, and thus becomes the leading agrarian company in Argentina. The Oil Center of Excellence is inaugurated in Bradley, Illinois. The joint commitment of Bunge in Brazil and the North America business leads to a centralised investigation for better foods.

2000

Bunge founds a new international marketing group for trading bulk goods and adds extra value by integrating logistics and financial functions. The company also opens a marketing office in China. In less than three years, Bunge would become the biggest importer of soy raw materials for the Chinese Nation.

1999

140 years after leaving Amsterdam, the company’s growth is priority. In order to be closer to the world’s financial centres, Bunge moves its global headquarters to White Plains, New York.

1998

Bunge focusses on integrated, efficient growth. This can be seen particularly in the plains of Council Bluffs, Iowa, where the company builds the biggest soy bean crushing and refining plant in the US.

1997

This year marks the start of a new era of expansion for Bunge in South America. The company acquires IAP, a Brazilian fertiliser producer, and Ceval, the biggest soy producer in Brazil and leading company in Argentina. During the next seven years, further acquisitions and organic growth would convert Bunge into the biggest fertiliser and soy producer in South America – the fastest growing region for agricultural products.

1987

Since Americans consume more ready-to-eat foods, Bunge takes over the US-based Carlin Food Corp., and extends its product range in order to also supply wholesale and retail bakeries, catering businesses and food producers with its products.

1985

Bunge is nominated for the „World without Hunger Presidential Award“, recognizing its efforts to fight hunger. The company continues to be a leading provider of the US-PL480 food aid programme.

1979

Bunge acquires the Lauhoff Grain Company and emerges as the world’s largest owner of dry crushing plants.

1970er und 1980er Jahre

Variety of products and operations is a crucial advantage. During the 1970s and 1980s, Bunge grows along the food chain by acquiring and building grain production, soy processing and food production plants in North and South America.

1967

Bunge expands in Destrehan and builds its first US-based soy bean processing plant. Fully integrated facilities like this one would become the linchpin in the company network of efficient plants.

1961

Bunge opens an export granary on the Mississippi River in Destrehan, Louisiana. With the granary, the biggest of its kind at that time, Bunge connects domestic grain companies with the global markets. It continues to be a crucial part of the company regarding US export operations.

1947

Due to the increasing importance, Bunge founds „Fertimport“, a Brazilian company that processes raw material supplies.

1946

By acquiring grain elevators in Kansas and the northern part of the Midwest, Bunge builds a strategic local network which becomes the company’s growth engine in the United States.

1945

From Porto Alegre, the company sends its first export supplies of soy beans from Brazil. Today, Bunge ist the biggest exporter of agricultural products in Brazil.

1938

Bunge gets into the Brazilian market for fertilisers and becomes the farmers‘ supplier as well as customer – an advantageous interdependence that continues to date.

1935

Bunge builds its first big grain handling plant in Midway, Minnesota, and becomes the founder of grain trading in North America.

1923

Bunge continues to expand and takes over a Brazilian cotton factory. The company’s strategy for the follwoing decades would be the balanced growth in North and South America.

1918

A century after its foundation, Bunge starts trading with raw materials in North America, the world’s largest agricultural market.

1905

Bunge expands in Brazil and makes its first steps in the food production chain by entering the grain mill business. For the next 100 years, Bunge would grow in the Brazilian agribusiness.

1859

As the first of several growth-oriented moves, Edouard Bunge – Johann’s grandson – relocates the company to Antwerpen, Belgium, where it becomes one of the world’s leading commodity traders.

Edouard’s brother, Ernest Bunge, takes the name Bunge to Argentina, a growing agricultural market, where the company trades with grains. This step sets the course for the future global expansion.

Johann Peter Bunge founds Bunge & Co. in Amsterdam, Netherlands, as an import/export commercial enterprise. During the next 200 years, Bunge would play an outstanding role in the global grain markets.