Our history

The BARRAL Cabinet was created in 1883 : on that year Mr. Pierre Barral, Rice Broker, took the oath to become a Sworn Broker.

His nephew, Germain Barral, took over the company in 1906, and developed the survey activity on agricultural raw materials. Then his son, Maurice Barral, succeeded him in 1951.

At that time, the Marseille Survey Cabinet carried out assessments on various goods arrived in Marseille by sea to be processed there: wheat in the semolina and flour mills, rice in the various rice mills in the region, coffee at the roasters, cocoa in the processing factory in Saint Menet, sugar in Saint Louis. In addition, at that time, there were various oilseeds (copra, palm kernel, castor oil) for the region's oil and soap mills.

When Jean-Loup Barral took the head of the company in 1975, after joining the BARRAL Cabinet in 1969, he developed the cocoa activity, in the prevention of the risk of transport, from the producing countries, as well as the monitoring of unloading rice. JLB Expertises was created in 1997 and took an international turn with the opening of the first subsidiary in Ivory Coast in 1998. In the following years, new subsidiaries opened in Ghana, Togo and Cameroon. The activity was also developed in other African countries (Benin, Nigeria, Guinea Conakry, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Gambia).

In 2010, it was the arrival of Rémi Barral in the company, great-great-great nephew of the creator, who further developed activities in Africa, with the opening of new subsidiaries. His arrival in the company started with the opening of JLB Madagascar in 2010, a subsidiary with its own laboratory for quality controls on exported goods: vanilla, spices (cloves, pepper, cinnamon, rose berries, etc.) cocoa and essential oils.

The company

JLB Expertises is an independent company specializing in the survey of agricultural and food products imported and exported throughout the world.

Our head office is located in Marseille, France, where all back office operations are grouped together. The team manages contacts with our clients and works with agents around the world. Daily information and final reports are issued from headquarters.

Sworn brokers

The profession of sworn brokers with the Court of Appeal is governed by the August 19th, 1994 decree, defining stringent rules of behavior and integrity. Because of their specific legal background and knowledge of cargo, sworn brokers are regularly appointed as court experts, situation in which their probity and integrity is the guarantee of their independence.

These values have been passed on to our teams. This enable us to guarantee to our Principals an efficient technical work as well as swift and reliable information. They are then able to make the most of our reports.