Abu Dhabi-controlled fresh food producer Unifruttii, is expanding its presence in Latin America with two acquisitions in Peru, building on a previous purchase in the region, as The company seeks continuous growth in the fruit market.

The company has reached an agreement to acquire both AvoAmerica Perú and Bomarea from the US companies Solum Partners and Alpine Fresh, he said this Saturday, after the in January it purchases Verfrut, which produces fruits in Chile and Peru.

Unifrutti, which distributes 500.000 metric tons of fresh fruits worldwide annually, has been controlled by ADQ since 2022, when the Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund focused on agriculture as a way to boost its financial profits and increase food resilience. in the United Arab Emirates.

The newly acquired companies grow avocados and blueberries, both new markets for the company, which is a large producer of apples, grapes and cherries with plots in Chile, Italy, the Philippines and South Africa.

Oil-rich Middle Eastern countries such as Saudi Arabia and the UAE, which import 90% of their food, have often invested in foreign food companies in a push towards food security.

With ADQ, Unifrutti is looking to grow and Latin America seemed like the right place for the “initial phase” of its plans.

“Latam is probably the most important region in the world for fruit exports, particularly to the United States, Europe and China, so it made a lot of sense for our M&A efforts to start in Chile and Peru,” Karl told Reuters. Stehelin de Taisne, director of strategy and mergers and acquisitions at Unifrutti.

Unifrutti did not reveal the size of the operations, but Taisne's Stehelin said they point to a broader global strategy to grow in scale where the company is already present and to fill gaps in key products with mergers and acquisitions and greenfield projects.

Stehelin de Taisne stressed that Peru was the “starting point” of Unifrutti's strategy, but that other countries were on the radar.

"Mexico It is a very interesting producing region. We have to evaluate the best way to penetrate the country in terms of production and sourcing, of berries and avocados, for example,” he said. “Colombia to a lesser extent for avocado, although it is probably more challenging.”