Food safety company Neogen Corporation has acquired Chile-based Magiar Chilena, a distributor of food, animal and plant diagnostics, for an undisclosed sum.
Following the deal, Neogen will incorporate the Magiar assets into its wholly-owned subsidiary Neogen Chile SpA, for continued operations in Chile.
Combined with previous acquisitions of similar businesses in Argentina and Uruguay, Neogen’s latest acquisition in Chile completes its physical presence in the agricultural Southern Cone region of South America.
According to Neogen, this region has large beef and dairy populations along with significant food crops that comprise large exports.
The Chile operations will be managed directly through Neogen’s Latin American operations and will offer direct sales of Neogen food safety, animal safety and genomic solutions into the country.
Founded in 1998, Magiar markets diagnostic products for food quality control and animal feed, including Neogen’s products.
According to the USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service, Chile is among the top ten agricultural exporters in the world. Its main export commodities are fish, seafood, wine, fresh fruit, dairy, and meat products.
“The addition of operations in Chile gives us a direct presence in nearly all of the major agricultural and food industry markets in South America,” said John Adent, Neogen’s president and CEO.
Adent added: “The use of distributors in distant regions, such as the Southern Cone, was critical as we established ourselves as a company capable of efficiently delivering our solutions to global markets.
“Combined with our recent acquisitions in Argentina, Uruguay, Italy, and Australia, this acquisition shows that we believe now is the time to drive our own growth in important global markets.”
Earlier this year, Neogen entered into a partnership with Ripe Technology (ripe.io) to bring blockchain technology to its food safety diagnostics and animal genomics.
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