Cargill growth and profit

Cargill reported has net earnings of $3.33 billion for fiscal 2009 ending May 31, down from a record $3.95 billion in the prior year. Revenues for the full year dropped 3 percent to $116.6 billion.

Greg Page, Cargill chairman and chief executive officer, said Cargill's business diversity was a source of strength. "Operating in many industries and in many countries allowed us to cushion some of the downturn by serving areas of growth, particularly in developing economies that experienced smaller declines in their gross domestic products."

Cargill continued to reinvest globally in fiscal 2009, opening or expanding major processing facilities in Brazil, Canada, China, France, Ghana and the United States, strengthening its global supply chains in canola, cocoa, palm, soy and biofuels. The company employs 159,000 people in 68 countries. - Cargill.com, 18/8/09


“Cargill CEO Greg Page says he often learns more from his own company than from the media about what’s going on in the world, thanks to far-flung offices operating in 68 countries. Reports on everything fro crop progress to weather patterns, political uprisings, stranded ships and commodity prices stream into Cargill’s Minetonka, Minnesota, headquarters every morning from employees working in industries as diverse as grain, finance, biofuels and cocoa. The information often gives Cargill an edge as it works as the world’s middleman.” - ST, 19/8/09 – Being its hometown newspaper, the Minneapolis-St.Paul Star-Tribune has privileged access to Cargill and as a result is the best public source for Cargill insider news. We receive clippings from the paper regularly.


Cargill is to introduce its Ingeo bioplastics to Brazil, offering the food, cosmetics and other industries a new packaging material derived from sugar instead of petroleum. Since the formation of NatureWorks as a 50-50 joint venture between Cargill and Teijin, the plastics have been used by more than 100 brands in the US, Europe and Asia . On 1 July Cargill announced its acquisition of 100 per cent of the NatureWorks business, with the latter becoming am independent company within the wider Cargill fold. The bioplastics, made in Nebraska, are to be imported through the port of Santos and will be stored at Cargill’s centre in San Paolo. - Foodproductiondaily.com, 7/7/09

Oilseeds in France

Cargill has opened a new rapeseed plant in Montoir, in western France, 5km from Cargill’s sunflower plant in Saint Nazaire. The plant will process up to 600,000 metric tones of rapeseed a year – most of which will be sourced locally. The output of Montoir will be 250,000 metric tones of rapeseed oil per year and 350,000 metric tonnes of protein-rich animal feed. Twenty-five per cent of the oil is be destined for food use, and the vast majority of this will be used for French food production

For Cargill, it represents an almost 50 per cent increase in its French oilseed capacity which previously stood at 1250,000 tonnes of rapeseed, soya and sunflower combined.
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Cargill’s partner in the enterprise is Sofiprotéol, a financial holding company that exists to boost oilseed production in France. Cargill owns a 75 per cent of the new plant and Sofiprotéol 25 per cent, but as the major shareholder in the Montoir facility Cargill will take on managerial and operational responsibilities.

The non-food 75% of the rapeseed oil produced will be channeled directly to the Diester Atlantique esther plant next door, which is a subsidiary of Sofiprotéol and in which Cargill also has a minority share..

Cargill’s new plant is its third significant grain and oilseed location in France. Its facility in Brest works largely with soy, and that in Saint Nazaire, mainly with sunflower (it is said to crush about half of all the sunflowers crushed in France) - foodproductiondaily.com, 19/9/08


Sugarcane milling in Brazil

Cargill has partnered with Moema sugarcane agribusiness group in the Bom Jardim sugarcane mill, to be built at Itapagipe, Minas Gerais with investments of $370Rmil in the milling facility and other $130Rmil in plantations. Bom Jardim, owned on a 50/50 basis, is to process 2mil m tons of sugarcane per harvest, a capacity that can be easily doubled in the future. It would manufacture ethanol and also engage in co-generating of electric power.

Cargill is reportedly interested to buy stakes in other sugarcane mills from Moema,. Cargill’s onslaught in the sugar & ethanol agribusiness began in 2006, with the acquisitions of stakes in the plants Cevasa (63%) at Patrocinio Paulista (Sao Paulo), and Itapagipe (43,75) at Minas Gerais. – Valor Economico, 20/8/08


Palm oil in Malaysia

Cargill has commenced operations at its South East Asia Food Application Centre, in Kuala Lumpur. The new facility, which brings Cargill's refining, texturising and flavourings businesses, for all product categories, under one roof, is the company's third Malaysian plant.

Cargill already owns two Malaysian palm oil refineries, in Kuantan and Port Klang. While palm oil remains Cargill's core business in the market, Cargill has already set aside $1.5m to develop a shrimp hatchery in Pahang, its first ever aquaculture venture.

Malaysia is responsible for around 50% of global palm oil production and 60% of global exports.
– www.world-grain.com , 1/10/08

Cargill expands in Poland

Cargill has completed the expansion of its Polish wheat processing facility, designed to meet consumer demand across the European bloc. This is the company’s latest expansion in Europe. In March it opened a new wheat processing plant in Manchester, UK, to produce wheat glucose for sweeteners, having transformed the plant from processing imported maize to processing domestic wheat.

Cargill lsaid the expansion of the Wroclow factory was carried out because Poland is a vital European centre for Cargill, and has been since 1991."We now employ nearly a thousand people in ten locations in the country, and Poland is a very significant country for Cargill's food and feed operations particularly in Eastern Europe."

The expansion to will allow the company to grind wheat on-site, which will then be used to produce sweeteners such as glucose and fructose for food industries such as bakery, confectionery and beverage.
The majority of these products will be exported throughout Central, Eastern and Western Europe. The company also claimed that, as in the UK, Cargill will support local farmers by sourcing the majority of its wheat in the region.

The company has also developed its ethanol line to provide wheat gluten for the food and animal feed industries, the majority of which is exported to the US. Vital wheat gluten is an insoluble protein that has been separated from the starch and other soluble components of wheat flour. It has a range of applications for the bakery market such as breads, rolls, pizza, tortillas, frozen foods, and noodles.

Cargill is one of the most prolific ingredients firms across the European bloc, with processing plants in countries such as France, Ireland, Spain and the Ukraine. Cargill was also one of the first Western corporations to attempt to penetrate the Eastern European market after the fall of communism, opening its first Russian office in the early nineties. Activities in the country now include the supply of food and agricultural commodities as well as financial market activities.

– from foodproductiondaily.com, 24/4/08

For background on Cargill’s activity in Poland, see Invisible Giant, second edition, Zed Books, 2002, pp 70-72

Cargill Cotton

Cargill Cotton

Cargill buys Clark Cotton Malawi - 29 feb 2008

Cargill Cotton Limited has officially announced the acquisition of Clark Cotton Malawi Limited effective from last year. The development has led to a name change of the firm to Cargill Cotton Limited.

"Cargill is a private owned company based in the United States and they have acquired 100% of Clark Cotton Malawi but this deal was finalised last year and now we are implementing the name change," said the company’s country manager Frans Grey.

Cotton is Malawi’s third biggest export and the company buys and processes it locally before selling it to manufacturers within the country and abroad.
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http://www.cargillcotton.com/

"We are present in every cotton producing and consuming region of the world through our merchandising, ginning and warehousing operations. In Africa, our gins give us access to some of the finest hand-picked cottons in the world and in the United States our warehousing capacity exceeds 500,000 bales, assuring our customers throughout the world of efficient and reliable shipments. And, our merchandising of over 5 million bales annually gains revenues for our company of over one billion US dollars in most years. Cargill Cotton’s reputation for quality, reliability, size and leadership is unrivaled in the world cotton industry."

"Cargill Cotton is very proud to be one of the world’s largest and oldest cotton businesses."

MAIN OFFICES:
USA - Cordova, TN
UK - Liverpool

INTERNATIONAL OFFICES:
Australia - Melbourne
"Cargill established a direct cotton marketing business in Australia in 2000. Cargill Australia serves cotton growers, ginners, buyers and textile mills worldwide. "

Brazil - Rondonopolis MT
China - Shanghai , Beijing
Turkey
South Africa - Johannesburg
Zimbabwe - "Cargill Zimbabwe owns three cotton gins at Tafuna, Chegutu and Gweruwhich and process 30 percent of the country's cotton. This is run under the Cotton business unit. The cotton is exported to South Africa, Europe and the Far East. Cargill Zimbabwe is headquartered in Harare."

Cargill heirs

Cargill MacMillan Jr is ranked together with Whitney MacMillan in 135th place in Forbes 2007 list of the 400 richest ‘Americans’ with $2.8 billion each from inheritance.

Cargill Canada

Cargill bought nine grain terminals this year, boosting its capacity by 40%. Dispensing of the terminals was part of the deal required with the formation of Viterra, the new company formed when Saskatchewan Wheat Pool bought out Agricore United earlier this year. As a result, Cargill will have 16-17% of the Canadian grain handling market. Viterra expects to hold about 40% of the market. As part of the deal forming Viterra, Saskatchewan Wheat Pool had to sell its North Shore terminal in Vancouver. Cargill was the buyer. Cargill CEO Len Penner says Cargill intends to continue its expansion in Canada and will double the capacity of its canola crushing operations at Clavet, Saskatchewan, next year. Cargill is the largest beef processor in Canada, primarily through its plant in High River, Alberta, but it also owns Better Beef in Ontario and processes 98% of the federally inspected beef in Ontario. Cargill Canada has sales of about $4.5 billion annually, with about 10,000 employees in Canada.

CARGILL MILL OCCUPIED BY BRAZIL LAND REFORM ACTIVISTS

SAO PAULO, Brazil, 7/3/07 --- Via Campesina activists invaded the Cevasa ethanol mill owned in part by Cargill on March 7, 2007. The Cevasa property is located in Patrocinio Paulista, roughly 300 kilometers north of Sao Paulo city. Cevasa is a joint venture with Cargill and other local partners. The invasion occurred on the day that US President George W. Bush was scheduled to arrive in Brazil to discuss ethanol with Brazilian president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

Cargill purchased 63% of Central Energetica Vale do Supucai Ltda, or Cevasa, last year. The mill, one of Brazil's largest, produces 1.4 million metric tons of sugar and 125 million liters of ethanol each year, according to Cargill. (Brazil is the world's No. 1 sugarcane producer and largest producer of sugarcane ethanol.)

The cane crop is still growing and no sugarcane is being crushed at this time. Sao Paulo sugar mills will go into production phase around April. "We're taking advantage of the fact that Bush is coming today to talk about ethanol and sugarcane to denounce the expansion of monoculture crops in Sao Paulo," said Soraia Soniano, a spokeswoman from the Landless Rural Workers Movement (MST). "We took over Cargill because the company is a symbol of big transnational agribusiness," Soniana said.

Some 200 women from MST and Via Campesina invaded the Cevesa mill at 5:30 in the morning local time. Via Campesina put the total close to 900. "When the workers arrived three hours later, they saw us and turned around and went home," Soniano said.

At least four properties were occupied by Via Campesina and MST activists over the last 24 hours under the banner "Women Against Agribusiness". The movement is also part of the group's actions for International Woman's Day 2007, celebrated worldwide on March 8.
-- Dow Jones, 7/3/07

Coming and Going

– a profile of Cargill Canada’s complex of operations, drawn from the Cargill website,
http://www.cargill.com/worldwide/canada.htm (accessed 11/12/06)

Cargill Foods operates a fully integrated beef processing facility, in High River, Alberta, with slaughter, fabrication, rendering and hide operations all under one roof. The plant processes 4,000 head of cattle each day. Approximately sixty percent of product is exported and forty percent is sold domestic.

Cargill Foods – Case Ready operates a multi-species case ready (ready for the retail meat case) meat packaging facility in Toronto, acquired 11 years ago. It was Cargill’s first case ready operation in North America and now produces case ready beef, pork, ground beef, poultry and sausage products.

Sun Valley Foods consists of a chicken processing plant in London, Ontario and a hatchery in Jarvis, Ontario. The plant processes 80,000 chickens each day. The hatchery on average produces 150,000 chicks per day, which are further processed at the London facility. Sun Valley is also expanding its frozen beef patty plant near Edmonton with the help of $1.5 million from the Government of Alberta. Cargill bought the former Caravelle Foods plant in 2004.

Cargill AgHorizons is the grain origination and crop inputs division of the Cargill, operating out of approximately 45 grain origination and crop input facilities in western Canada and 14 in Ontario. Cargill AgHorizons representatives help producers understand their costs of production, cash flow and storage needs and create a customized grain production and marketing plan for the producer. Cargill AgResource supplies crop production inputs and business management services to independent retailers throughout western Canada and on a limited scale in Ontario.

Cargill Animal Nutrition provides animal nutrition products and management consultation services to commercial livestock producers in western Canada .

Prairie Malt Limited, in Biggar, SK, supplies malt for beer production. Cargill became a joint venture partner in Prairie Malt Limited in 1998.

Cargill Specialty Canola Oils (CSCO) markets IMC (high oleic) varieties of canola oil under the Clear Valley® brand. CSCO used its expertise in research and biotechnology to develop canola varieties and hybrids.

Cargill Sweeteners supplies a variety of nutritive sweeteners, from corn syrups to sucrose to customized blends, used in beverages, baked goods, candies, cereals and prepared foods. Cargill's corn, waxy maize, and tapioca starches are used to thicken, texturize and coat diverse products from baked goods to meats to marshmallows.

Cargill Oil Seed’s facility in Clavet, Saskatchewan, is the largest soft-seed plant in North America, processing 2,400 tons of canola per day.

Saskferco Products, in Belle Plaine, Saskatchewan, is one of North America's largest producers of granular urea and anhydrous ammonia (from natural gas).

Cargill Salt is the world's largest marketer of salt products, including bulk de-icers, water-conditioning salt and consumer salt products.

Wilbur Chocolate, Burlington, Ontario, produces chocolate and confectionery products for commercial use. The business also functions as the sales office for Gerkens Cacoa, also a Cargilll company.

Egg Solutions Inc. is a joint venture, located in Etobicoke, Ontario, combining the expertise and reputation of Global Egg Corporation, a leading further processed egg supplier, with the innovation of Cargill’s Sunny Fresh Foods, a technologically advanced egg processor. The high-tech facility serves food manufacturers and foodservice companies with Egg Solutions Extended Shelf Life (ESL) refrigerated egg products, fully cooked egg entrees including omelet’s and egg patties, diced eggs and pre-cooked scrambled eggs.

Cargill Power and Gas Marketing is our North American natural gas trading operation based in Calgary. CPGM also markets and trades electricity, weather derivatives, coal and other commodities.