Potato specialist Wilhelm Weuthen takes over all shares of BayWa, which the company owns in Kartoffel-Centrum Bayern (KCB). This company was established in 1998 through a joint venture between the two. Agricultural giant BayWa does not have potatoes as its core business and is therefore selling it.
Wilhelm Weuthen is an important link in the potato industry in Europe and is responsible for the purchase and sale of table and chip potatoes. To this end, the company does business with chip factories, but it also offers contract cultivation itself and has a pool. Weuthen is owned by the agricultural trading company Raiffeissen Waren-Zentrale Rhein-Main (RWZ).
Purveyor to Aviko
BayWa and RWZ jointly founded the Kartoffel-Centrum Bayern (KCB) in 1998. With its base in 'Rain am Lech', the company is the main supplier of Aviko Deutschland, which has a chip factory in the same Bavarian town. 300.000 tons are shipped via KCB every year. In addition to chip potatoes, this also concerns table potatoes and onions that are prepared for marketing in Southeast Europe.
According to Christph Kempkes, the CEO of RWZ, nothing will change for the Bavarian potato growers and employees. Existing agreements are used. “Potatoes are not BayWa's core business,” adds CEO Klaus Josef Lutz. "We have a good one in RWZ copper found that uses the existing agreements. BayWa will continue to sell machines for potato cultivation."
The German antitrust watchdog must still approve the deal. According to the most recent corporate figures (2017), subsidiary Weuthen generated a turnover of €339 million. That is a decrease of €19 million compared to the previous year. RWZ's potato branch traded and processed 2 million tons of potatoes. With full ownership of KCB, this volume increases to 2,16 million tons.