Cargill Expanding In Africa and Europe F ood and agriculture giant Cargill recently announced a series of new projects and expansions in Europe and Africa related to food processing and energy production. The latest comes in Ghana where Cargill plans a cocoa processing facility in the port of Tema. Ghana is one of the world's leading cocoa producers and the Cargill facility will process 60,000 tons annually, initially with the potential to double capacity.    Cargill plans to invest more than 50 million euro ($64.8 million) to build a rapeseed crush plant at its existing site at the port of Montoir in western France. The investment will be made through a joint venture of Sofiproteol, a financial holding company focusing on the development of oilseed production. The plant will crush up to 600,000 metric tons of rapeseed per year. This will be converted to up to 250,000 metric tons per year of rapeseed oil, the main ingredient in the production of biodiesel. The new plant will supplement Cargill's existing food operations in St. Nazaire, which specializes in the crushing and refining of sunflower oil. Production at Montoir is scheduled to begin in 2008, by which time Cargill expects to crush a total of 1,750,000 metric tons of rapeseed, soya and sunflower seeds at its St. Nazaire, Brest and Montoir sites.    Cargill is also investing in two projects in Germany, one related to biodiesel and the other to food oils. The company is building a 25-million-euro ($32.4-million) biodiesel plant in the Hochst industrial park, at Frankfurt am Main. Capacity will be 250,000 metric tons annually and biodiesel will be produced from crude vegetable oil, predominantly rapeseed oil. Cargill says the site was chosen because of its excellent infrastructure and proximity to existing and potential customers.    Cargill is also increasing refining capacity at its Hamburg food-oil refinery by more than 100,000 metric tons per year.