In the long term, the cereal growers, that is what guides us, it's our compass. So we know there are turbulences, there is volatility, so we must show agility, we must look at where the opportunities are because behind these crises there are always opportunities to seize. And for us, the opportunities are to accelerate in emerging markets and to create much closer ties than before, precisely to benefit from the somewhat repellent effect of the United States on at least part of the various markets, and to strengthen our strategic alliances.
And so, what are, for example, your preferred strategic targets in emerging countries?
Well, clearly the countries of the Middle East. Saudi Arabia is truly an incredible market for the future. We absolutely must establish ourselves there. We have created a commercial subsidiary and now certainly an industrial one to deploy our know-how and export French expertise. I recall that Algeria, unfortunately, is no longer a client. So this allows us to recover a new important market with more interesting economic ties, with development and investment projects in the country.
Are you welcomed with open arms or not?
Well, we are not alone there because the Saudis also work with the Americans, the Russians, and the Chinese. So we have to find our place, but we are welcomed normally and they expect us. We have French know-how that interests these countries a lot, particularly in grain processing.
In Ukraine, you have 500 employees there. You plan to build a port silo. We know how much Ukraine is a power in terms of wheat. How do you manage to continue working there?
There is no complex vision of the future. Well, we have started working again because we can now export from the ports of Odessa with a functioning insurance system. Six months ago, there was no insurance system, so we couldn't send ships to export, notably to the Middle East. Now it seems to be stabilizing. So we were reassured and decided to invest, knowing that there is a Marshall Plan for Ukraine's recovery, and we want to be part of that plan to also benefit from aid to build port silos and rebalance our trading business model. Because to perform well internationally, we cannot rely only on French and European grains. We must have other origins, and Ukraine is strategic for us to balance our economic model.
To export, you also need to sell off assets. You have a plan to divest assets worth around 500 million euros. What do you want to sell?
We have many assets in our Invivo portfolio; we are a conglomerate with assets that are less strategic. For example, we divested Soufflet Food when we bought the Soufflet group, the elementary part to the Avril group. That was already three years ago. We sold an insect business we had in Africa to the Raseo fund. So that's cash coming in to help finance our international development focused on malt and grain processing of wheat and barley.
Malt, you have become number one in the world, right?
Yes, number one in the world for a year since the acquisition of UMG, the Australian UMG. So we have consolidated and we continue to develop this platform to support our clients around the world. Our main clients, as you mentioned, are Diageo, AB InBev, and Carlsberg, who are expanding their breweries. We support them by creating malt houses and managing the upstream agricultural supply chain.
We'll talk about beer and its development in a moment, but you just mentioned the word insect. You sold your activity in Africa, didn't the insect case in France interest you?
No, because we are not talking about the same insects. Insects in France are for animal nutrition, while ours are beneficial insects used in greenhouses for vegetable growing to avoid pesticides and be 100% natural. And since we are increasingly focused on large-scale field crops, vegetable and fruit growing, specialized crops are less strategic for Invivo. So we sold that branch. But the insect case in France that was up for takeover at the commercial court, you didn't even look at it because it went bankrupt. I know that case very well because we were initially funding the startup 10 years ago when we were in animal nutrition, and we saw the limits of the product's performance; there wasn't enough energy in the product for livestock feed compared to soy or other grains. So we knew it was difficult. They increasingly relied on lower-volume channels like pet food, which remain small markets and don't justify such a large factory. But we told them that five years ago. That's why we didn't follow up five years ago. So we are not going to get back into that case now, obviously.
So that's it for the insect case. On the subject of beer, you work with Heineken, and there is a very strong development of non-alcoholic beer. They made the first product. For you, is that a very important outlet? Also, development in many countries that previously did not consume beer.
Yes, and it's interesting because in non-alcoholic beer, you need more malt for more flavor. So it's ultimately very virtuous. The more non-alcoholic beer we sell, the more malt we sell. And it's also very good for health. It's quite interesting for the quality of a premium beer. So we think it's a very interesting market, especially in countries like Saudi Arabia and others, because it provides very interesting additional outlets for malt and French know-how. More non-alcoholic beer, more malt.
