• Agri-Marine
• Forest Products & General Merchandise
• The Metal, Mineral Resources & Energy
• Textile

The Agri-Marine Products Unit buys and exports grain, meat and other foodstuffs from the U.S. for the Japanese and Asian markets; engages in commodities trading through the New York Coffee, Sugar and Cocoa Exchange and the Chicago Board of Trade; and assists Marubeni Corporation in conducting commodity trading with suppliers in North America and Central and South America. For some time now, it has exported wheat, barley, rice, corn, sorghum, soybeans, canola, beef, pork and other foodstuffs to the Japanese and Asian markets from the U.S., while also importing sugar to the U.S. from Central and South America.

The Agri-Marine Products Unit has worked to expand its business, especially in corn and soybeans, by securing its supply base. In 2005, it formed a strategic alliance with the major U.S. grain suppliers when it established the Time Charter Vessel Operation Company with Archer Daniels Midland Company (ADM). It also entered a new supply relationship in Brazil in close cooperation with the Agrenco Group. Similarly, it sought to ensure a safe and stable supply system for meat and other foodstuffs by reinforcing strong links with U.S. and Central and South American suppliers; for example, with Premium Standard Farm in the chilled pork trade, with Jamaican Cane Products Sales in the U.S.-quota sugar trade, and with a Canadian supplier of wheat. The Unit also seeks to increase its trading of non-genetically modified (non-GMO) grain as well as to promote more organic foods in Japan.

Marubeni America’s subsidiary, Columbia Grain, Inc. (CGI), exports over 130 million bushels of wheat and barley through its state-of-the-art grain elevator at Terminal-5 in Portland, Oregon. CGI’s facility ships about 12-13% of all the wheat and barley exported by the U.S. (For more information, please see CGI’s website at www.columbiagrain.com.) In anticipation of irregular market conditions across the globe, the Agri-Marine Products Unit is looking to new areas for supplies of grain, including South America.