Bunge Creates Joint Venture to Build River Grain Terminal in Illinois

ST. LOUIS, April 11, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Bunge North America, the North American operating arm of Bunge Limited (NYSE: BG), announced that it has created a joint venture with SCF Marine Inc., a subsidiary of SEACOR Holdings Inc. (NYSE: CKH), to build a river grain terminal in Fairmont City located in St. Clair County, Illinois.  The joint venture, Bunge-SCF Grain, LLC, will build a state-of-the-art facility on the Mississippi River capable of receiving grains, soybeans, their byproducts and other bulk commodities and efficiently shipping them either domestically or to the export market.

"Meeting the growing global demand for commodities requires not only more infrastructure, but improved infrastructure, and everything from site selection to facility design is being done to make sure we can efficiently serve farmers and customers," said Bailey Ragan, vice president, Bunge Grain, Fertilizer and Biofuels.  "The terminal will have high-speed unloading and loading capabilities and is located in one of the most agriculturally productive areas in the Midwest on a site where we have great rail, truck and barge access."

The facility will have more than a million bushels of permanent storage and will be able to handle high volumes of multiple commodities simultaneously, providing maximum flexibility.  The site is the northernmost river point that provides year-round, ice-free river access for barges as well as allows for deepwater barge loading.

"This facility will help us maximize the efficiency of barge and boat assets," said Tim Power, president of SCF Marine.  "We will be able to receive products via rail and truck and transload them directly onto barges for delivery to domestic locations or to the Port of South Louisiana for export."

Alberici Constructors, Inc. is the design-build general contractor for the project.  Construction is expected to take about a year and will employ about 100 people.  Once operational, the facility will have 12-20 full-time employees.

About Bunge North America

Bunge North America (www.bungenorthamerica.com), the North American operating arm of Bunge Limited (NYSE: BG), is a vertically integrated food and feed ingredient company, supplying raw and processed agricultural commodities and specialized food ingredients to a wide range of customers in the livestock, poultry, food processor, foodservice and bakery industries.  With headquarters in St. Louis, Missouri, Bunge North America and its subsidiaries operate grain elevators, oilseed processing plants, edible oil refineries and packaging facilities, and corn dry mills in the U.S., Canada and Mexico.

About Bunge Limited

Bunge Limited (www.bunge.com, NYSE: BG) is a leading global agribusiness and food company with approximately 32,000 employees in more than 30 countries. Bunge buys, sells, stores and transports oilseeds and grains to serve customers worldwide; processes oilseeds to make protein meal for animal feed and edible oil products for commercial customers and consumers; produces sugar and ethanol from sugarcane; mills wheat and corn to make ingredients used by food companies; and sells fertilizer in North and South America. Founded in 1818, the company is headquartered in White Plains, New York.

Cautionary Statement Concerning Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains both historical and forward-looking statements. All statements, other than statements of historical fact are, or may be deemed to be, forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. These forward-looking statements are not based on historical facts, but rather reflect our current expectations and projections about our future results, performance, prospects and opportunities. We have tried to identify these forward-looking statements by using words including "may," "will," "should," "could," "expect," "anticipate," "believe," "plan," "intend," "estimate," "continue" and similar expressions. These forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause our actual results, performance, prospects or opportunities to differ materially from those expressed in, or implied by, these forward-looking statements. The following important factors, among others, could affect our business and financial performance: industry conditions, including fluctuations in supply, demand and prices for agricultural commodities and other raw materials and products used in our business; fluctuations in energy and freight costs and competitive developments in our industries; the effects of weather conditions and the outbreak of crop and animal disease on our business; global and regional agricultural, economic, financial and commodities market, political, social and health conditions; the outcome of pending regulatory and legal proceedings; our ability to complete, integrate and benefit from acquisitions, dispositions, joint ventures, including the transaction described in this press release, and strategic alliances; our ability to achieve the efficiencies, savings and other benefits anticipated from our cost reduction, margin improvement and other business optimization initiatives; changes in government policies, laws and regulations affecting our business, including agricultural and trade policies, tax regulations and biofuels legislation; and other factors affecting our business generally. The forward-looking statements included in this release are made only as of the date of this release, and except as otherwise required by federal securities law, we do not have any obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements to reflect subsequent events or circumstances.

SOURCE Bunge North America