Adecoagro plans to double Profertil's capacity to about 2.8 million tonnes of urea per year, leveraged on Vaca Muerta gas, and is weighing new investments in dairy, rice and peanuts.
Adecoagro, Argentina's largest agricultural company, aims to keep growing with a strategy that combines industrial investments, value chain integration and exports. From the possibility of doubling Profertil's capacity in Bahía Blanca to the development of its dairy, rice and peanut businesses, the company is betting on expanding across different agro-industrial segments.
The company — which since 2025 has had the crypto group Tether as its majority shareholder — has made its most recent bet on the country's main urea plant. Profertil was acquired in a US$1.2 billion deal together with the Asociación de Cooperativas Argentinas (ACA): Adecoagro contributed 90% of the amount and ACA the remaining 10%.
The company, which trades on the New York Stock Exchange, should not be confused, at least for now, with the recent purchase of more than 900,000 hectares of farmland that the Benetton family had held in Argentina since 1991 and from which it has just divested. In that case, according to the limited information available, the buyers would be the group of Argentine directors who retained the minority stake and the management of Adecoagro, led by CEO Mariano Bosch.
In Profertil's case, the company is studying a project to expand the plant's capacity and take its output to about 2.8 million tonnes per year, more than double the current capacity, according to Alejandro López Moriena, Adecoagro's director of Sustainability. The business rests on the development of Vaca Muerta, given the impact that the availability of competitive natural gas can have on production costs.
Argentina consumes between 2.5 and 2.8 million tonnes of urea, while the region imports around 10 million. That is why Profertil's growth would have to combine domestic supply with exports, mainly to Brazil and Uruguay.
In dairy, Adecoagro has 14,500 milking cows at a production hub in southern Santa Fe, near Venado Tuerto. Average annual production reaches almost 39 liters per cow per day, with peaks above 40 liters. "We have just completed what was our goal and we are now fine-tuning productivity," said the executive.
The company is also industrially integrated, with two plants it bought from Sancor when they were idle. In Morteros, Córdoba, it produces cheese and powdered milk, products mainly geared to export; in Chivilcoy, Buenos Aires, it makes long-life milk, yogurt, chocolate milk, protein products, lactose-free milk and cream, with a stronger focus on the domestic market.
In addition, Adecoagro recovered the Las Tres Niñas brand, which had belonged to Sancor and had been off the market for years. "We revived it and today it is a brand that sits high up in market share. With that integration of the dairy farms, the industry and the brand, we reach the supermarkets and the Argentine dining table," he said.
Although it currently has no concrete industrial expansion project in that segment, the company is analyzing opportunities to increase its primary production and processing. "Primary production could double or triple because the natural conditions are there. Argentina has to look at the export market, it has to look at the world in order to produce more," he said.
In rice, the company sows about 65,000 hectares, mainly in Argentina, and another 2,000 to 3,000 hectares in Uruguay. It produces almost 500,000 tonnes of paddy rice, which it processes at six mills of its own distributed across both countries. 70% of that output is exported and the rest goes to the domestic market.
Adecoagro also owns the Molinos Ala brand and continues to seek opportunities to grow in an activity it considers favored by the water potential of the Mesopotamia region and the production difficulties facing other traditional rice-growing countries. The firm sows 65,000 hectares of this crop, when the national area stands at 200,000: "That is very little compared with the potential it has, given the water available in the Mesopotamia region," López Moriena stressed.
In extensive farming, the company works about 180,000 hectares with wheat, soybeans, corn, sunflower and peanuts. The latter has become one of its strategic businesses, with an integration that ranges from production in the fields to industrial processing.
As for peanut production, Adecoagro bought a plant in Dalmacio Vélez, Córdoba, where it processes its own output. Between 90% and 95% of that product is exported, mainly to Europe, a market that prioritizes quality. "Peanuts from Argentina are of very good quality. Europe buys Argentine peanuts first and then goes out to buy elsewhere," the executive noted.
For López Moriena, the combination of primary production, industry and foreign markets is the key to sustaining the company's growth in the country. That same strategy runs through each of its businesses and now also extends to the regional fertilizer market.
