The wave of agribusiness deals which has taken Bunge into palm oil, and Massey Ferguson-maker Agco into silos, has spread to the pulses sector, which witnessed two deals within hours.

Canada-based lentil trader Alliance Grain Traders revealed the purchase of a part-completed pulse processing facility in the northern US state of North Dakota, at a cost of $12m including the bill for finishing the plant.

"This facility is all about firming up our North American capacity," Murad Al-Katib, the group's chief executive, said.

The statement came hours after the Alliance Grain bosses found that Toepfer International, Germany's largest crop trader, had landed in their back yard with the purchase of two Canadian pea and lentil businesses, Western Grain Trade and Western Grain Cleaning & Processing.

Deal spree 

The acquisitions represent the latest in a wave of deals in the sector which has this week seen Bunge, the world's biggest oilseeds processor, enter the palm oil sector, while Agco last month unveiled the $940m purchase of silos-to-irrigators group GSI Holdings.

Meanwhile, US agribusiness giant Cargill has made a string of takeovers, most lately the E1.5bn purchase in August of European-based feed group Provimi.

Chinese milk giant China Mengniu is mulling a purchase of Pfizer's infant nutrition business, while in the former Soviet Union, Russia's milk sector has witnessed a series of takeovers, and Ukraine is seeing a consolidation of its farm operating groups under the wing of giants such as Kernel.

Gavilon, the grain handler and fertilizer group backed by billionaire George Soros, last week unveiled the opening of a grain trading office in Kiev, to exploit Ukraine's growing status as a crop exporter.

'Processing vital'

Many of these deals, notably those by Cargill, have been unveiled as in the interests of pursuing a "producer-to-plate" policy, meaning control throughout the food chain.

Gary Towne, the Toefper chief executive, said that "adding processing to Toepfer is vital to ensuring that we continue to offer customers products to meet their growing demands".

Alliance Grain said that the North Dakota purchase would enable it to move "up the value chain with a focus on pulse ingredients and beans for the food sector".

The deals come despite a distinct downturn in North American pulse growing this year, after farmers switched to high-priced corn.

Canada's pulse output has slumped an estimated 30% to 4.0m tonnes this year, on farm ministry estimates.

The US sees its output of dry edible beans, its biggest pulse crop, plunging 38% below 890,000 tonnes.