Tradin Organic to Mark 30 Year Anniversary

06 Feb 2015 --- Tradin Organic Agriculture B.V., headquartered in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, will be celebrating its 30 year anniversary as a trader of organic ingredients this year.

The Organic Corporation B.V. (TOC) and Tradin Agricultural International were founded in 1985 by Gerard Versteegh and Wim Rabbie as pioneers in trading globally sourced, organic agricultural ingredients.

“We are in the lucky position to have 30 years of experience as pioneers in a niche market which has seen tremendous growth over the past few years. At the same time, we are able to act quickly with agility, almost like a Start-up”, commented Gerard Versteegh, President of SunOpta International Sourcing and Supply Segment and co-founder “To share some numbers, we engage more than 5800 small holder farmers in our sourcing initiatives globally. We estimate that each day approximately 25 trucks of organic ingredients are moved by Tradin Organic worldwide.”

The company became Tradin Organic Agriculture in 1994, and then quickly expanded to Germany and China (Winged-Ox) in 1999. Tradin Organics USA, Inc. in Santa Cruz, United States followed in 2001 and the sales office in France was opened in 2002. In 2004 Tradin Organic added Trabocca B.V. as a Green Coffee Specialist. In 2007 a joint venture with a local partner led to the establishment of Selet Hulling PLC, a specialised Sesame Hulling facility in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

Since 2008, Tradin Organic has been a part of the SunOpta Inc. conglomerate, a leading global company focused on natural, organic and specialty foods. Tradin Organic is part of the SunOpta International Sourcing & Supply segment.

In 2012 Tradin Organic underwent rebranding, resulting in the current look and feel of the company. 2012 also saw the initial establishment of SunOpta Foods Bulgaria, Tradin Organic’s organic sunflower project. This was completed in 2013 with the acquisition of OLC, the Sunflower Processing factory in Silistra, Bulgaria. In 2013 Tradin Organic also opened Crown of Holland, a dedicated Cocoa Processing facility for organic and specialty cocoa in the north of the Netherlands.

Tradin Organic is planning to celebrate its 30th anniversary throughout the year on various occasions.

Tradin Organic has sales and sourcing offices as well as processing facilities worldwide and offers a unique, wide range of organic and certified raw materials. From fruit, nuts and oils to specialty products such as cocoa, coffee and superfoods, many of these raw materials and semi-finished ingredients are sourced from Tradin Organic’s own initiatives at origin and processed in company-owned facilities.