Barcelona-based agri-business company Elian has welcomed the Spanish Development Financing Company COFIDES into its share capital with an investment of €40 million.

COFIDES now becomes a minority shareholder in Elian, supporting its project to turn Barcelona into a key hub for plant-based protein production.

The investment will be used to consolidate Elian’s project at the Port of Barcelona, where the agri-business group is investing more than €300 million into expanding its plant-based protein production facility.

Following its acquisition of a soybean crushing plant in 2024, Elian announced the expansion of its industrial project at the end of 2025. Completion is scheduled for early 2028.

The expansion will enable Elian to broaden its range of products, customers and end-use sectors. Once complete, the plant will reach 90,000 square metres and add more than 100,000 annual tonnes of production capacity for protein derivatives for both human food and animal feed, on top of its current 770,000 annual tonnes.

This project has also been supported by Acció, the business competitiveness agency of the Department of Business and Labour, through a €2.25 million grant.

According to Elian, its plant is the world’s first agro-industrial plant with an end-to-end hydrocarbon-free process, from the bean to the final product, thanks to its clean-label oilseed processing technology. This technology aims to guarantee high purity standards with a low environmental impact.

The company generated €400 million in revenue in 2025 and has 90 employees. Its facility is one of three integrated infrastructures of its kind in Europe, positioned as a strategic asset for reducing dependence on ingredients imported from the US, South America and China.

Andrés Martín, CEO and founder of Elian, said: “COFIDES joining our shareholding structure represents key institutional backing and demonstrates that the Barcelona plant has gone beyond the industrial sphere to become infrastructure of strategic national importance”.

“This alliance enables us to accelerate our roadmap to lead Europe in plant-based protein sovereignty, ensuring that the food industry has access to a local, traceable, highly sustainable supply that is protected from volatility in global supply markets.”

The deal coincides with the European Commission’s recent publication of an Action Plan, which includes a target to increase the share of domestically produced oilseed and protein-crop protein used for animal feed from 25.8% in 2025 to 35% by 2035.

Elian is focusing on both high-value feed and human food, and is promoting non-GMO soybean cultivation in Catalonia and Aragon with the goal of reaching 3,000 hectares during 2026.