First lesson, the cooperative giant (9,000 farmers) recorded record turnover of 1.64 billion euros (+15%), for a profit (Start) of 82 million euros and net income of 2 million euros. Leading the way, the agricultural division still accounts for more than a third of turnover thanks to 2021 harvests at “excellent, corn but also wheat” yield levels.
Seeds (27% of earnings) and food activities (29% of earnings) are on the rise despite the avian flu epizootics and the war in Ukraine, where Euralis has a seed factory.
Reconciliation with Maïsadour on ducks
The merger in the field of fattened ducks with another giant of the South-West, the Maïsadour group, is “still in progress”, more precisely awaiting authorization from the Competition Authority. If approved, the concentration project would give rise to a whole with contours never before seen in the sector. It would constitute a new coup for Euralis, three years after the merger in seeds with the Caussade group, which gave birth to Lidea, now one of the ten largest seed companies in the world.
In terms of investments, Euralis will inaugurate a new crushing plant (Sojalim 2) on March 21, 2023 in Vic-en-Bigorre, in the Hautes-Pyrénées.
Agrivoltaism, bioethanol and methanation
The managers of Euralis also discussed societal and environmental issues at length, in particular via the issue of water resources. “The drought of 2022, when water levels were quite good a few months earlier, highlighted the essential role of water in agricultural production. Without water, there is no life,” argued Christophe Congues.
“The gases accumulate, it’s not like water spilled on a table that you wipe. We need not to waste time”, explained climatologist Hervé Le Treut
Then the “great witness” Hervé Le Treut, climatologist and president of the AcclimaTerra regional scientific committee, cooled the room by talking about global warming, presenting an inventory of greenhouse gas emissions. “The gases accumulate, it’s not like water spilled on a table that you wipe. We need to waste no time in doing everything we can to improve the situation”, he argued, while agriculture represents a fifth to a quarter of emissions in France.
A round table with the Adour-Garonne water agency, Enedis and the Agricultural Cooperation then made it possible to outline various solutions… and Euralis to present its “green” investments in agrivoltaism, the production of bioethanol and methanization .
