Agri-Services Group Origin Enterprises has announced its entry into the South American market after it agreed a deal to buy a 65% interest in Fortgreen Commercial Agricola in Brazil.
As part of the deal, Origin has also agreed to acquire a 20% shareholding in Ferrari Zagatto E Cia.
Fortgreen, which is headquartered in Paraná State in the south of the country, is focused on the development of value added crop nutrition and speciality inputs.
Founded in 2004, the business makes and markets a complete portfolio of related crop technologies, covering foliar fertilisers, bio stimulants, adjuvants and control release and slow release fertilisers.
Ferrari, founded in 1988 and also headquartered in Paraná, is one of the leading providers of agronomy services, crop inputs and crop marketing support to grain and speciality crop growers in the state.
Origin said that Fortgreen is an excellent entry point for the company into the Brazilian market.
It said the deal provide the group with valuable insights into wider direct farm opportunities in Paraná - the second largest soybean and corn producing region in Brazil - and across Brazil more generally.
Origin said its performance during the third quarter mainly reflected the adverse impact of unseasonal weather patterns on spring growing conditions and farm activity in general across its operations in Ireland, the UK and Continental Europe.
In a trading update, the company said that since then, there has been a return to more "normal and settled weather conditions", mainly in Ireland and the UK.
It said this has underpinned a robust level of catch up activity on-farm to-date.
"As a result, we expect increased demand for agronomy services and crop inputs for the fourth quarter," the company added.
It also said it was guiding for full year adjusted diluted earnings per share of between 47.5 and 48.5 cent.
Origin Enterprises generates substantially all of its profits in the third and fourth quarters of its financial year.
Shares in the company moved higher in Dublin trade today.
