Our members Member associations The members of FEDIOL are the National Associations of seed crushers' and oil processors' established in the different EU countries. They lobby for their industry at the level of the national governments and parliaments or local organisations. They are themselves made up of members representing specific companies located on their territory.

Member companies

With the passing of time, the structure of the industry in the European Union has changed significantly. Many of the independent companies which had contributed to the creation of FEDIOL in the past have disappeared. A high degree of concentration within the hands of a small number of large multinational groups well integrated throughout the different industrial phases (crushing, refining, and transformation into consumer products of one form or another) has occurred.

Due to mergers and acquisitions, started 10 years ago slightly more than 75 % of the European capacity belongs now to four major international groups, in decreasing order: A.D.M, CARGILL, BUNGE, SAIPOL.

Nonetheless there is still a number of relatively small firms operating in the market with various degrees of integration.

Plant location

For the time being, approximately 150 production units – employing about 20 000 people – operate across the European Union. Some plants are located in major seaports and concentrate on one type of seed (some units have an annual crushing capacity of well over 1 million tonnes of soybeans); other plants carry out processing activities based on the crushing of several type of seeds (soybean and/or rapeseed and/or sunflower), some of which are imported and some produced locally.

Other plants depend almost exclusively on raw materials produced locally.

Plant capacity

FEDIOL’s members’ total crushing capacity is of about 30 million tonnes. 86 % of the installed capacity is currently used but this can vary considerably depending on the type of seeds crushed and the location of the plant.