OREANDA-NEWS. April 25, 2012. Toyota Tsusho (hereinafter referred to as "Toyota Tsusho"; Headquarters: Nagoya City; President: Jun Karube) make a 10% capital injection into PentAG NIDERA Pty Ltd., (hereinafter referred to as "PentAG NIDERA"), a grain company based in eastern Australia. Through this  investment, Toyota Tsusho will make a full scale entry into grain accumulation, distribution, and export businesses in a major grain-producing nation. 

Toyota Tsusho has always considered Australia to be a key country for grain procurement, and has a long and fruitful history of trade with Australian farmers - particularly those in the eastern part of the country, where PentAG NIDERA have their headquarters. The capital injection will not only help standard grain trading, also boost grain shipping capability by enhancing grain pool operations (see explanation below)* within Australia, working through PentAG NIDERA. Over the next four years (by the fiscal term ending March 2017), PentAG NIDERA plans to take advantage of this opportunity and increase the annual cargo handling volume from its current two million tons to four million.  

This is not Toyota TsushoЃfs first overseas investment activity in the grain business, which has been a field of emphasis for some time. On November 19, 2010, a comprehensive collaboration agreement was announced with NIDERA, a major shareholder of PentAG NIDERA, for the procurement of grains from South America. The latest capital participation can be regarded as another fact of the growing collaboration between Toyota Tsusho and NIDERA.

Other operations in procurement include the establishment of a company importing/ distributing raw materials for animal feed in Malaysia (announced on January 29, 2010) and entry into the flour milling business in Indonesia (announced on October 5, 2011).

 Through this capital injection, Toyota Tsusho intends to secure its position as a grain supplier in Asia, with further aims to enhance and expand the companyЃfs value chain of stable procurement and supply in order to respond to growing demands. 

* About the grain pool , and how prices are set after accumulation.  The PentAG Nidera Grain Pools are grain accumulation products, that allow growers to commit grain to an entity without the requirement to fix their price at delivery. The accumulated grain can then be sold to end users over time on behalf of the pool participants (growers) in order to establish a value.  The pool manager (PentAG Nidera) receives a fee from the pool for their role in marketing the grain. Pool participants receive staged payments over time according to the proportion of grain sold from the pool and adjustments to the overall "Estimated Pool Return".  Once all grain is sold from the pool, the final price can be set and growers can receive their final pool distribution.