Wayzata, Minnesota, U.S.A.-based Cargill Animal Nutrition & Health has initiated the sale of its 35,000-ton aquafeed plant in Franklinton, Louisiana, U.S.A. to long-time customer Bowers-Saha Nutrition for an undisclosed amount.
“Cargill sought us out as a possible buyer. They saw the opportunity we had and the mentality we shared; Cargill is a family-owned business, and so are we,” Mark Kubecka, the business manager for Bowers-Saha’s marketing and sales company Homegrown Seafood, told SeafoodSource at the Aquaculture America 2026 conference in Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S.A.
Palacios, Texas, U.S.A.-based Bowers-Saha is a third-generation aquaculture firm that farms shrimp, red drum, striped bass, and catfish, along with future plans for tilapia, at several farms in Southeast Texas. The purchase of the Cargill plant inches the company closer to vertical integration across its entire supply chain.
“For a couple of species, we have achieved total integration, and for a couple of others, it fills in a big gap. Some of the places we aren’t vertically integrated are still feeding our feed to the fingerlings we’re going to get, so it fills in a big gap,” Kubecka said.
Though the plant will transfer ownership, it will continue to use Cargill’s “nutrition, rations, pre-mixes, and vitamins,” according to Kubecka, who added that Bowers-Saha has established a consulting agreement with Cargill in order to ensure a smooth transition.
“We know we’re in an industry we don’t know as much about, so we know we still need help along the way in order to not stub our toe and continue to put high-quality products into the market,” he said, adding that the plant’s current staff will stay onboard as it transfers ownership. “We hope that it’s a seamless transition.”
The purchase of the Cargill plant comes five years after Bowers underwent a major expansion, in which it acquired El Campo, Texas-based Ekstrom Aquaculture, integrated farming and processing capabilities, expanded bass-farming capacity, and established Homegrown Seafood as the marketing and sales arm for all of its farms.
“[Since then,] we’ve been in the wings looking at a couple of different projects, but this one landed in our lap this summer. I never would have imagined that this would have landed in our lap, but it did and we were very happy to get it done,” Kubecka said.
