The soft commodity trading house Ecom has gained approval from the European Commission to acquire Armajaro Trading to form one of the biggest global cocoa traders with significant market position in West African cocoa beans, the source for over half of global production. The merged group will have a particularly strong position in sales of traceable or certified West African cocoa beans. In spite of the resulting post-merger scale of the operation, the European Commission decided that sufficient market competition will remain from ADM, Barry Callebaut, and several other companies entering the European market. Switzerland-based Ecom ranks as a top-five trader in cocoa and cotton even prior to acquiring Armajaro Trading handling 250,000 tons of raw chocolate, 2 million bales of cotton as well as 11 million bags of coffee in 2011. Ecom also has a presence in the sugar, oilseed and hog sectors and reported revenues of $4 billion for 2011, the last year for which data is available. Through Armajaro, Ecom hopes to gain further presence in the cocoa and coffee sectors.
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