Elian's €200M investment to process more soybeans at the port of Barcelona is underway

BarcelonaWith plant-based protein gaining market share, the US-based Viserion Group, through its Catalan subsidiary Elian, is committed to increasing production at the Port of Barcelona. The company will invest €200 million to expand its existing facilities at the Álvarez de la Campa dock, where it processes soybeans, a high-protein legume used in products such as vegetarian burgers. The work, which began this Monday, will double the factory's current size, expanding it to 90,000 square meters to increase capacity. "This is a very important milestone. We are not only investing in a new plant, we are contributing to the country by writing a new industrial chapter," said Elian's CEO, Andrés Martín, at the groundbreaking ceremony, accompanied by authorities such as the Minister of Industry and Tourism, Jordi Hereu; the Minister of the Presidency, Albert Dalmau; and the President of the Port of Barcelona, ​​José Alberto Carbonell.

Soybeans, harvested from the soybean crop, are then sent to the Elian factory. Once ground, they are transformed into flour and oil used in the food industry, for both human and animal consumption, as well as for biofuels. When construction is complete, around the end of 2027, the factory will begin producing concentrated and textured vegetable proteins, currently imported mainly from the United States, China, and South America.

The Viserion agribusiness group, with a global turnover of 4 billion euros, arrived in Barcelona at the end of 2023 through the purchase of the Catalan company Elian, founded a few years earlier, and the acquisition of the historic factory formerly owned by Cargill, also based in the United States. This new investment expands upon the initial outlay of approximately 100 million euros made to acquire and adapt the plant. In addition, the company has received €300,000 from the PERTE program, launched by the Spanish government to strengthen the agri-food sector. With this new investment, the plant will be able to increase its production by more than 100,000 tons annually. Currently, the workforce numbers 90 employees, and the company plans to hire more staff.

Elian's expansion has involved relocating facilities at the Port of Barcelona, ​​which is already at full capacity and "where every square centimeter is being utilized," as its president pointed out. The factory expansion will take place on an adjacent plot of land owned by the Barcelona Free Trade Zone Consortium (CZFB). The BIT terminal—through which 80% of the coffee consumed in Spain enters the country—was previously located there and will have to be relocated, as will the freight forwarding company Landtrans.

A gesture with the goods

The Secretary of State for Transport and Sustainable Mobility also attended today's event. José Antonio Santanowho has been in Barcelona for weeks to resolve the commuter rail crisis after theaccident in Gelidawhere a train driver died. With this gesture, the leader wanted to reinforce the Spanish government's commitment to the port of Barcelona and the freight transportwhich has also been affected by the railway chaos.

"Our concern is not only for people but also for goods. They are part of the port's economic power and a significant part of the economic activity of Barcelona and the country as a whole," he said. Santano did not shy away from mentioning the work to be carried out in the Ruby tunnelThis infrastructure is part of the route for transporting goods to Europe: "We must carry out the works, but we will make them compatible with economic activity and the movement of goods." The works are expected to last three years, with the main disruption beginning soon and lasting for a couple of months, during which time traffic between Rubí and Castellbisbal will only be possible on a single track.