Food ingredient company Bunge North America (Bunge) has acquired Minsa, a US subsidiary of Mexico’s Grupo Minsa for $75m.

The acquisition includes Minsa’s corn flour mills located in Red Oak, Iowa, US, and Muleshoe, Texas, US.

Bunge North America president Todd Bastean said: “This acquisition is an important strategic step to strengthen our Food and Ingredients business in the US, and could provide additional growth opportunities for the company’s other regions.

“These assets, together with our existing plant in Worthington, Indiana, make Bunge a leading US producer of corn masa, a product that is experiencing significant growth not only here, but around the globe.”

Corn masa is said to be one of the key ingredients for producing tortillas, tortilla chips, and other foods, which is a key growth category in packaged food and foodservice channels.

“We will be better able to provide customers with a high-quality, reliable supply of products nationwide.”

With the acquisition, Bunge intends to further enhance its masa milling capacity and also add new products such as organic and non-GMO masa and on-trend colours such as blue and red corn.

In addition to traditional bulk, tote and 50-pound bags used by food manufacturers and food service customers, both the Iowa and Texas locations can produce 1kg / 2.2lb packages commonly sold by retailers under their own store brands.

Bunge intends to offer corn masa in bulk quantities as well as in convenient packs to the local retailers as Minsa’s corn flour mills in Iowa and Texas produces corn masa in 50lb and 2.2lb bags.

Bunge Milling managing director Daniel Maldonado said: “With additional locations throughout the US, we will be better able to provide customers with a high-quality, reliable supply of products nationwide.

“We look forward to partnering with customers to help build their brands and using our strong innovation capabilities to further support them in meeting evolving consumer needs with an on-trend portfolio.”