Grain Club - The Agribusiness Alliance
Four German agricultural associations have partnered to form the Grain Club. They represent the different stages of the grain, oilseed, and feed industry, from wholesale and foreign trade of agricultural raw materials to their processing. The alliance was founded in 2004. In January 2019, OVID Association of the Oilseed Crushing and Oil Refining Industry in Germany, took over the office.
The task of the Grain Club is to take an official stance on agricultural policy and agricultural trade policy issues that affect the participating associations and their member companies.
Political changes, as well as changes within the markets and among economic actors are seen and evaluated in an international context. The Grain Club represents its positions in an open dialogue with politics, administration, and society.
Associations of the Grain Club
The union regards itself as a loose alliance acting as the Grain Club in order to establish a reliable legal and political framework for the participating associations and their member companies. External representation is carried out by the respective associations, which, by prior arrangement, speak as the Grain Club alliance.
DER AGRARHANDEL represents the interests of the agricultural trading business in Germany.
Its member companies supply the agricultural sector with seeds, crop protection products, fertilizers and animal feed. They store harvested goods such as grain and oilseeds throughout Germany and market them as food and feed at home and abroad. Members include international import and export companies as well as brokers of agricultural products.
The Hamburg-based arbitration court settles disputes between contracting parties in the agricultural sector.
DER AGRARHANDEL e. V. derived in 2022 from the merger of the Bundesverband Agrarhandel e.V. (BVA) and the Verein der Getreidehändler der Hamburger Börse e.V. (VdG). The members of DER AGRARHANDEL stand for a progressive, innovative agribusiness.
The German Raiffeisen Association e.V.
The Deutsche Raiffeisenverband e.V. represents the interests of the cooperative-oriented companies in the German agricultural and food industry.
Throughout Germany, farmers, winegrowers, and gardeners are organized in more than 2,100 cooperatives in order to optimize the processing and marketing of their products.
On average each year, about 15 million tons of grain and 2.8 million tons of rapeseed are collected, cleaned, stored, and prepared for further processing by the cooperative companies.
The number of about 82,000 employees underlines the importance of the agricultural cooperatives.
The German Association of Wholesale Traders in Oils, Fats, and Oil Raw Materials e.V.
National and international wholesale traders are united in the Deutscher Verband des Großhandels mit Ölen, Fetten und Ölrohstoffen e.V. (Grofor).
The 150 members of Grofor are traders, producers and consumers, intermediaries, and agents from all over Europe. Their fields of activity include vegetable and animal oils and fats, oil raw materials, fatty acids, and related goods.
In Germany, 5 million tons of vegetable oils and fats are produced annually, and another 3 million tons are imported.
They are processed into products for private households, for the food and chemical industries, and for technical use as well as for biofuels.
OVID Association of the Oilseed Crushing and Oil Refining Industry in Germany
OVID - Verband der ölsaatenverarbeitenden Industrie in Deutschland represents companies that specialize in the processing of oilseeds and vegetable oils as well as the wholesale of oils, fats, and protein animal feeds.
The core task of the 19 member companies is the processing of oil seeds and vegetable oils. The resulting products are important raw materials and a key component of a conscious and modern life. The oil mills in Germany process around 12.9 million tons of oil seeds annually, which are used as vegetable oils and fats in the fields of nutrition, chemistry, pharmaceuticals, and bioenergy. Additionally, 8.3 million tons of oil cake are produced every year, a rich source of protein components for animal feed.
