COFCO International, Ltd. and GROWMARK Inc. have finalized agreements for COFCO International to purchase GROWMARK’s minority stake in the Cahokia transloading facility in Cahokia, Illinois. Simultaneously, GROWMARK will acquire COFCO International’s ownership in the Chicago grain warehouse facility, known as the B-House.
The Cahokia Facility, a grain and byproduct transloading terminal on the Mississippi River in the St. Louis Harbor, offers access to all seven of North America’s Class I railroads. It includes over seven miles of private on-site rail track, capable of accommodating up to four-unit trains (110 cars) at a time. The facility specializes in high-speed rail and truck-to-barge loading.
The B-House, located on the Calumet River near downtown Chicago, has a capacity of 11.5 million bushels and provides flexibility for moving grain through rail, truck, barge, and laker vessels, facilitating imports and exports via the Great Lakes.
“We plan to continue investing in our U.S. business, and we intend to pursue additional opportunities focused on supporting our U.S. Gulf and Pacific Northwest export strategy,” said Zhijun (Jerry) Shi, Chief Operating Officer G&O for COFCO International in North America.
Matt Lurkins, Vice President of Grain and Strategic Relationships at GROWMARK, expressed enthusiasm for the acquisition: “GROWMARK is a farmer-owned cooperative. That means the farmers growing the grain that gets traded through B-House will now get to participate in the returns generated from this link of the supply chain. We are excited to add B-House to our portfolio of cooperatively owned grain assets.”
