Tereos and APM Déshy Cooperative Merge in Preparation for CAP Reform

18 Jan 2016 --- On Wednesday, January 13, the Supervisory Board of Tereos and the Board of Administrators of APM Déshy approved the merger of APM Déshy and Tereos. This merger reflects the two cooperatives' ambition to prepare for the CAP reform, which will have significant effects on agricultural activities from now until 2020: decrease in direct aid to farmers, ending of quotas and minimum prices for starch potato and sugar beet, and changes to coupled support for alfalfa.

By joining forces, Tereos and APM Déshy will be able to make the most of the complementarities of the sugar beet, starch potato and alfalfa sectors in order to enhance the value of agricultural productions and offer their members new opportunities.

At national and international levels, APM Déshy members will benefit from the Tereos Group's knowhow and leading positions in innovation, distribution and export. They will thus increase their market opportunities in the animal feed sector. At the regional level, the size of the new group – which will comprise 2,700 cooperative members, some 500 employees and 7 industrial plants – will boost the competitiveness of the sugar beet, potato and alfalfa sectors, thanks to the synergies created among all of these activities.

Regional synergies have already been put to good use by Tereos and the Coopérative Féculière de Haussimont (formerly SCAF) since their merger in 2013, allowing cooperative members to increase their production and the related remuneration. Indeed, the areas devoted to starch potatoes increased 20% over the past 2 years and are set to double in 2017 with the arrival of the Vic cooperative members. Furthermore, the remuneration of farmers' production has increased significantly, despite the recent ending of starch quotas.

Brice Bijot, Chairman of the APM Déshy Cooperative, made the following statement: "We have chosen to merge with the Tereos cooperative group, whose recognized know-how and strong presence in our region offer our cooperative members a promising future in the dehydration of pulp as well as alfalfa."

Denis Lecart, Vice Chairman of Tereos' Supervisory Board and Chairman of the Connantre Coopérative, added: “We are joining forces in the same cooperative spirit, with the goal of enabling our members to benefit from all the synergies of our sectors. This is a major project for Marne farmers, not only at the regional level, but also because it aims to address the CAP reform and deregulation of our markets for the benefit of farmers." "The merger of APM Déshy and Tereos boosts the dynamics between the upstream agricultural sector and industrial processing in the French cooperative sector. It provides long-term visibility to the members of the two cooperatives, who will also benefit from strong regional development dynamics", stresses Alexis Duval, Chief Executive Officer of Tereos.

This project will be submitted for approval to the General Meetings of the cooperatives by the end of June 2016.