20% turnover growth for Bunge in 2009

Bunge Romania, leader of the domestic vegetable oil market,
posted 260m-euro turnover last year, up around 20% from 2008. “The
rising volumes of bottled oil sold last year, as a result of the
good positioning and the diversification of our products across all
segments: premium, mainstream and low-end, along with a relative
market growth in 2009 compared with 2008, helped Bunge capture
additional volumes,” stated Cristian Ungureanu, Bunge Romania
general and financial manager. He says, though, that identifying
and taking advantage of new export opportunities also led to rising
turnover for the company, which accounts for over 40% of the market
on the vegetable oil segment. The domestic subsidiary of US Bunge
producer is among the few companies with vegetable oil production
operations that boasted higher turnover last year, although the
price of a litre of oil last year dropped by around 30% in the
December 2008-January 2010 period, from 6.3-7 RON to 4.5-4.6 RON,
according to the index calculated by ZF in major retail store
chains. Moreover, the private sunflower oil labels of retailers
present domestically have soared in the past year, amid the
consumers’ dwindling purchasing power.