Best in the business WHAT'S Nf.wS Issue 7 November 1995 working relations 3 The Argentinian Moreno Group is the world's number one exporter of crude sunflower-seed oil and meal.This top agri-producer and trader is a Rabobank cliënt in both its home country and in Rotterdam. CEO Anto- nio José Moreno and the general manager of the Group's Geneva-based marketing arm, Anton van Buel, visited Rotterdam recently.They were willing to talk to What's NewS about what they want from their bank. INTERNATIONALLY COMPETITIVE Big is a word you almost cannot avoid when looking at the family-owned Moreno Group. Started by Antonio Moreno's grand- father and namesake, an immigrant to Ar- gentina from the Lebanon, today its three processing plants have a combined crushing capacity of 1.3 million tonnes a year in sunflower alone. In addition, the Group is active in a number of other sectors, includ- ing livestock and some forestry. 'As a com- pany,' says Moreno (second from right), 'we have of course had our ups and downs. But in the last ten years, we have focused very much on our core business and have man- aged to pump the necessary investment into high-tech fixed assets in order to make us internationally competitive.' TEAM SPIRIT The result of this investment has tripled crushing capacity since 1984 and almost quadrupled productivity in the same period. 'As a family firm, we're very big on team-work,' Morena says. 'Tradition- ally, our policy has been based on creating a spirit of efficiency, mutual effort and re- sponsibility among our own people. In an extremely competitive business and we need those facets in our organization to stay ahead of the competition.' NEW BUSINESS Asked how his Group intends to do that, Moreno is quick to point out new markets opening up for his products. 'We're looking seriously at China,' he says, 'be- cause there are real opportunities there. But you must not for- get our own region. Argentina has a popu- lation of only 33 mil lion, but the Merco- sur countries have around 200 million. That represents a growth market for us as well. But to go back to China, we were very interested to see Rabobank has established a pre- sence in the PCR. We'11 be looking for some proactivity from you there. You know, a bank's function is not only to lend money. In fact, it's to create business. In the past, you went to the bank for credit and you haggled about amounts and the fees involv- ed. Today, there is a lot more to a banking relationship. At Moreno, we are looking for a different cooperation, a way of studying new business opportunities together.' As the Moreno Group is a Rabobank Argen tina cliënt and the marketing arm is located in Switzerland, you may be wondering where the Rotterdam office comes in.'That's easy,' says Paul Dekker, 'Moreno is a producer and processor and they ship their products. Many of those products are physically routed through Rotterdam.This kind of trade in- volves a lot of documents. Before a ship can discharge its cargo, a number of documents have to be exchanged. I'm talking here spec- ifically of Bills of Lading which are, in fact, title to the goods. But there's also import duty to be paid, charges if the ship cannot be dis- charged, guarantees for missing Bills of Lading.There's a whole stack of physical documents that are continually being rushed around the port.Our documentary credits department takes care of that.' But this is only one element of what we do for clients such as Moreno. Our Commercial Sup port Office people actually operate like an agent for clients,' Dekker says, 'and this can mean Rabobank customers from any and all of our operations worldwide.We keep track of SERIOUS DIALOGUE Van Buel (right) agrees. 'You need a work ing relationship with your bank,' he says. 'It should be an open cooperation. But that has to be based on confidence, so you have to know that when you think you have an interesting project, your bank will enter a serious dialogue with you, and vice versa, of course.' Moreno confirms this approach. He believes major changes have occurred in the culture of family-owned companies in recent years. 'We used to be rather introverted,' he says. 'Now, we are ready to look outside. This is essential if we are to grow. And looking at our bank for real input is all part of that development. In recent years, we've noticed all banks are talking about "partnership". Few practice what they preach. Rabobank is an excep- tion - although not the only one,' he laughs. 'We work with the bank both in Ar gentina and here in Rotterdam. It's a good cooperation, but we certainly evaluate per formance constantly. We are always weig- hing Rabobank and its competitors because if we want to beat the competition, we have to have a competitive bank.' MORENO: NEED A COMPETI- TIVE BANK De Argentijnse Moreno Groep, de grootste exporteur van ruwe zonnebloemolie, is klant van zowel Rabobank Argentinië als kantoor Rotterdam. Antonio Moreno ver wacht dat zijn bank tevens zijn partner is: samen nieuwe kansen bespreken en benut ten. Een samenwerking gebaseerd op ver trouwen. their cargo, we advise on counter-party re- liability and do just about everything else an agent does.Say a Chilian fruit company sells a cargo to Company X. Before giving out title to the goods, the fruit company wants to know when - and perhaps more importantly if - he's going to be paid. We check that out for him. And if he has sold the goods on, say, a 60-day term, we'll then check after that period has elapsed whether payment has been made and make sure they get it.' According to Dekker, this type of trade isfairly precarious for the exporter. 'When the Chilean fruit exporter sees his shipload of goods sail out of port, he is usually watching his whole capital leave for a very distant place. He has to be sure he will get his money. So we are really providing a comfort level to him as well as taking care of all the documen- tation. You could say we're like the client's eyes and ears here. We're not the only bank which offers this kind of service, but we are the only food and agribusiness bank that has the network and the experience to achieve it forourF&A clients.'

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