The agricultural traders of the Lake Geneva region

Read the PDF edition (2 pages)

Agricultural trading has its own geography, which extends beyond the canton of Geneva. Cargill settled in Geneva in 1956, but several large traders in grains, oilseeds, sugar, coffee and cocoa have chosen the Vaud shores of Lake Geneva, between Nyon, Rolle, Morges and Lausanne, for reasons of Vaud taxation, the availability of office space and quality of life, while using the banks, inspectors, charterers and lawyers of Geneva.¹ The Lake Geneva region thus forms a single cluster for agricultural trading, in which the Geneva part provides the services and the Vaud part a share of the operational headquarters, and whose components the cantonal statistics artificially separate.

Agricultural trading differs from energy trading in its thinner margins, its considerable volumes, its dependence on harvests and agricultural policies, and its relationships with millions of producers, cooperatives and intermediaries in the countries of origin. The questions of sustainability, deforestation, child labour and farmers’ incomes, which Part I examines for African cocoa, coffee and cotton, arise there with particular acuteness. The agricultural traders have therefore developed traceability and certification programmes that the energy traders have not had to devise. The European regulation on deforestation-free products, whose application has been postponed several times, reaches these houses through their European customers.²

Notes

Wikipedia (en), art. “ECOM Agroindustrial”: headquartered in Pully; Le Temps, 10 June 2023 (Archer Daniels Midland in Rolle); by contrast, Cargill (“Cargill en Suisse”, cargill.com: active in Switzerland since 1956, more than 350 people at the Geneva headquarters, from which the trading of grains and oilseeds is conducted) and COFCO International (“Headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland”, cofcointernational.com) are established in the canton of Geneva. ↩
Regulation (EU) 2023/1115 on deforestation-free products, whose application has been postponed to 30 December 2026 for large companies and to 30 June 2027 for small ones; Deloitte Société d’Avocats, “Règlement Déforestation : un nouveau report pour fin 2026”, blog.avocats.deloitte.fr (accessed September 2026). ↩

For general information only. This article does not constitute legal or tax advice, does not replace advice on an individual case and creates no lawyer-client relationship. It reflects the legal position as of September 2025.

English

Contact

Dr Alexander Ressos, TEP

Rechtsanwalt/Attorney-at-Law

I am a Swiss attorney-at-law and also admitted as a solicitor in Hong Kong and in England & Wales, with almost 25 years of experience.

Together with my multilingual team, including Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Russian, Ukrainian and French native speakers, I advise companies and their owners from around the world on the full range of banking, corporate, commercial and tax law matters in Switzerland, including international tax planning, fiduciary services, and legal family office services including immigration & relocation or real estate investments. My practice has a particular focus on clients from growth and frontier markets in Greater China, Central Asia and the Caucasus, the rest of Asia, the Middle East, Africa and Latin America, and I equally advise clients from Europe and North America. Through an affiliated Swiss trust company, we also take care of the incorporation and ongoing administration of their companies and other structures, including accounting, tax returns and corporate secretarial services, and I serve as a professional director where required. With the support of a network of first-class cooperation partners, I also implement solutions worldwide.

My approach is to act as a trusted advisor who works directly with decision-makers, on an equal footing: I start from what you want to achieve and shape every structure, contract and tax decision around your commercial goals and how it improves your after-tax return. As “lawyers who make it happen”, my team and I stay involved until your company is set up, your structure is in place and your transaction has closed, and we remain available for any follow-on work that may be required. You benefit from bespoke solutions and personal attention, and sound, friendly and practical advice. We are not the lowest-cost provider in the market, nor do we intend to be; our aim is to deliver well-founded, proper solutions and excellent value for money.

Get in touch →

The agricultural traders of the Lake Geneva region

Notes

Setting up or expanding in Switzerland?