An explosion at a grain terminal in Argentina owned by China’s COFCO International Ltd (中糧國際) on Wednesday killed one employee, injured others and affected shipping activities from one of the world’s top food suppliers, the conglomerate said.
The cause of the blast is not yet known, but it could have an outsized effect on the flow of food exports from Argentina as unions representing grains inspectors and crushing workers said they would yesterday go on strike to demand better safety conditions.
Television images showed thick black smoke billowing from what COFCO described as a 52,000m2 grains processing plant. The facility is part of Argentina’s shipping hub of Rosario, on the Parana River in Santa Fe province.
“COFCO International can confirm that an explosion occurred at the loading area of its facilities at Puerto General San Martin in Rosario,” the Chinese state-run conglomerate said in a statement.
One employee died in the blast and eight others were taken to hospital for treatment, the statement said.
“The cause of the incident is not yet known,” the statement said.
Police, firefighters and other authorities provided no additional details.
“The affected site has been shut down,” the statement said, adding that COFCO has launched “a full internal investigation.”
The storage and crushing facility received 27,000 tonnes of grain per day.
It has a grain warehousing capacity of 295,000 tonnes and a soymeal storage capacity of 105,000 tonnes.
The plant was previously owned by Dutch grain trader Nidera BV, which COFCO agreed to buy in 2014. The acquisition and other mergers projected COFCO into some of the world’s top grain, vegetable oil, sugar and coffee producing regions.
Argentina is the world’s top exporter of soymeal livestock feed, as well as a major supplier of corn and raw soybeans. Soy is in high demand in China from a growing middle class eating meal-fed beef and pork.
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