Cereal Investments Company (CIC) S.A

CIC started as a traditional trading company buying FOB and selling CFR. Our strength was in rice, sugar, wheat, corn, soybean meal and fish meal. Our preferred trading destinations were Africa and the Middle East. Our Group also invested in rice mills in Spain, and roasting and packing plants for dried fruits and nuts in France. The major clients for both these operations were the major super market chains in Europe. In the mid 1990s, under pressure from the international organizations, most of the destination countries where we were selling started to liberalise the markets and government purchasing organizations were gradually replaced by private importers. We saw that there was a clear need in many of these markets for a financially strong company that could assure local wholesalers of on-time delivery with quality guarantee, and we decided to establish our own subsidiaries in the various destinations and act as importers. The decision was taken also because we believed that t...