YPF Agro to aquire Vicentin

YPF Agro, the firm that will take over the Vicentin operation if the cereal expropriation bill succeeds, belongs to YPF and sells fuels, seeds, fertilizers, agrochemicals and other inputs for agricultural land.

The link between the oil company and agricultural land is not new. In 2000 YPF created a distributor to take diesel fuel to the fields. Two years later, it opened a hundred distribution centers and, shortly after, entered the business of exchanging fuel and inputs for grains. In 2010 it took the name of YPF Directo, and in 2019, during the presidency of Miguel Gutiérrez, it relaunched its brand with the name YPF Agro with a strong presence in the field.

Along with the sales of fuel and inputs, YPF's agro division is leveraged in a research and development company that it created together with Conicet, Y-Tec, which, in addition to the energy sector, works in soil and bio-input studies.

With the advances achieved in the entire technological range, the oil company began to provide producers, logistics, seeds and silobags for the storage of grains, fertilizers and crop protection products with the exchange of grains as one of the payment and technical advisory services in the stages of the campaign.

In 2019 the company already had plans to grow from 1 to 5% in its participation in the agrochemicals market and from 10 to 20% in the fertilizer market. It also projected doubling the volume of grain swap over the next four years. 

"We reached 22,000 producers who cover 70% of the agricultural area, both in intensive and extensive crops," said Nicolás Winchel from the agro business to LA NACION, during Expoagro 2019. At that time, the company's managers did not rule out entering the grain origination business, which will materialize now with the expropriation of Vicentin.

YPF also has another business related to agriculture that occurred through a link with the Canadian firm Nutrien Ag Solutions, which resulted in Profertil, a petrochemical company, specializing in nitrogen fertilizers. Although from the entity they stated that they are not related to YPF Agro, they report the presence of the firm in the agricultural sector.

The original Spanish version of this report is from LA NACION.