GRAINCO, the Yorkshire and North-East grain marketing company, is to expand its operations north of the border.
The company, jointly owned by farmer co-operatives Farmway, of Darlington, and Tynegrain, of South Shields, will become the majority shareholder in a new Aberdeenshire-based firm, UCoS Limited, which expects to handle about 15pc of the Scottish cereals market in the coming year.
The move could see GrainCo, together with the new company, handling up to one millon tonnes of grain annually.
GrainCo is no stranger to the Scottish market, supplying many leading consumers including distillers, animal feed and flour mills.
The company is also strong on the export front, shipping about 50pc of its annual volume to overseas markets from its home base on the Tyne.
David Loane, chief executive of Farmway and GrainCo, said: "These latest developments will bring real scale to co-operative grain marketing, provide greater opportunities to service both home and overseas markets and will improve overall operating efficiency at a time when growers desperately need all the support they can get."
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