COFIDES Takes €40 Million Stake in Elian Barcelona Plant Protein Project

Spanish development finance company COFIDES has invested €40 million for a minority stake in Elian, providing fresh backing for the agribusiness company’s plant protein expansion at the Port of Barcelona.

The investment was announced on September 16 and is being made through the state managed Co Investment Fund, known as FOCO. Elian’s owner, Viserion International, is participating as the co investor in the transaction.

Elian is investing more than €300 million in the Barcelona facility, with the current expansion scheduled for completion in early 2028. The project follows its 2024 acquisition of a soybean crushing plant at the port.

Once expanded, the industrial site is expected to cover 90,000 square metres and add more than 100,000 tonnes of annual capacity for protein derivatives used in human food and animal feed. That comes on top of the facility’s current annual capacity of 770,000 tonnes.

The project has also received a €2.25 million grant from ACCIÓ, the Catalan business competitiveness agency. Elian reported €400 million in revenue for 2025 and employs 90 people.

The company says the integrated facility uses a hydrocarbon free process from soybean to finished ingredients. That environmental claim comes from Elian and COFIDES, while the commercial importance is clearer: the plant is designed to supply locally processed protein ingredients to European food and feed customers.

COFIDES linked the investment to Europe’s effort to reduce reliance on imported protein. Its announcement cites European Commission figures indicating that 94 percent of soy used in European Union animal feed is imported, leaving processors exposed to distant suppliers and global disruption.

Elian is also encouraging non genetically modified soybean cultivation in Catalonia and Aragon, with a target of 3,000 hectares in 2026. The investment therefore ties a large processing project to a developing regional supply chain, although completion and future sourcing growth still depend on execution over the next several years.