Léopold Louis-Dreyfus travels from France to Switzerland, a country with interesting prospects for a budding food production industry, to make his first sale of grain and establish his business.

Léopold recognizes opportunities for higher profitability by expanding his range of commercial activities, and buys grain from Hungary and Romania to sell in Western Europe. By the 1870s, his company is one of the few to have reached a continental scale.

The company enters Argentina, Brazil and Canada, with more than 1,000 representatives buying corn, wheat, barley, oats and oilseeds from local farmers at harvest time, shipping them around the world to meet global demand, and contributing immensely to local economies.

From the 1970s to the 1990s, the company increases its direct involvement in agricultural activities across cotton, sugar, citrus and coffee, expanding origination and marketing activities, and adding citrus and oilseeds processing to a growing value chain.

Increasingly, we are adding more value to agricultural goods ourselves, moving further downstream on the journey from producer to consumer. In doing so, we stand by our commitment to fair and sustainable value creation, responding to demand for a seamless, traceable and responsible value chain from farmer to customer and consumer.