Cargill Buying German Chocolate Company

NEW YORK (AP) -- Cargill Inc. is buying German chocolate company Schwartauer Werke GmbH & Co. KG Kakao Verarbeitung Berlin as it looks to expand its European cocoa and chocolate business.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Schwartauer has two chocolate production plants in Berlin and a total of approximately 180 employees. The company will be folded into Cargill's network of cocoa and chocolate businesses once the transaction closes.

Privately held Cargill, based in Wayzata near Minneapolis, has cocoa and chocolate plants in Klein Schierstedt and Hamburg, Germany.

Cargill's wide-ranging business includes everything from growing and processing crops to blending and shipping biofuels to making food products.

The acquisition is expected to be completed in the first part of 2011, Cargill said Wednesday.

The company also reported on Wednesday that its second-quarter earnings nearly tripled, benefiting from rising global demand and commodity prices and its stake in booming fertilizer business Mosaic Co.

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