Earnings for the nine-month period were up 55% to $2.58bn compared with $1.66bn last year. Revenue was up 8% in the three-month period to $27.3bn, with the nine-month period seeing revenues total $81.4bn.

Gains in food ingredients, animal protein and industrials were listed by Cargill chair and chief executive officer David MacLennan as reasons for the strong results.

Global gains in sweeteners and plant-based bio-industrials in North America allowed the food ingredients and applications at Cargill to contribute most to the increase in earnings at the company.

Animal nutrition

Earnings in the animal nutrition and protein segment rose significantly due to a strong performance in animal protein against a weak comparative period. Renewed consumer demand for beef, higher cooked chicken exports out of southeast Asia and improved processing yields helped the strong performance.

However, third-quarter earnings in global animal nutrition were below last year’s levels. Good performance in bulk feeds and premix products in India, Vietnam and other countries did not offset sales volume softening due to competitive pressure in China and Russia, an avian influenza outbreak in Korea and disruptive weather in other countries.

Processing

In the origination and processing segment, earnings fell behind last year’s third quarter. There was a good performance in North America. However, reduced farmer selling slowed processing in Argentina due to excess rain and decreased corn exports out of Brazil due to last year’s drought meant performance in South America trailed.

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