NIXON PRAISES JUSTICE FOR GRAIN ELEVATOR CASE

Missouri Attorney General Jay Nixon praised Thursday's decision by U.S. Justice Department to require Continental Grain to divest its grain-buying facility near Caruthersville before the company is acquired by a competitor.

Nixon said Cargill Inc.'s plan to buy Continental Grain would have reduced competition and hurt grain farmers in Southeast Missouri.

"Without the divestiture, this acquisition would have resulted in one company controlling at least half of the market in Southeast Missouri, and there would have been a subsequent reduction in the level of competition for river barge transportation," Nixon said Friday.

Nixon, who called for the divestiture in a May letter to the Justice Department, said the decision was a victory for Bootheel farmers.

In addition to requiring the divestiture of Continental's Mississippi River terminal at Cottonwood Point, the proposed consent decree would enhance competition at an independently owned terminal at Bird's Point, Nixon said.

Continental Grain had acquired a minority ownership interest and contractual right of first refusal in that terminal, giving it the power to repurchase all grain sold to that terminal.

Nixon said the decree would dissolve that arrangement and prevent Cargill from reinstituting it.

He said the consent decree involving the Justice Department, Cargill and Continental Grain will keep one company from having the power to control or artificially depress the prices farmers get for their grain.

The consent decree, which awaits approval by a federal judge in Washington, would keep four independent grain buyers at the Mississippi River terminals in the Bootheel.