Cargill Inc.’s fiscal first-quarter earnings fell by more than half as the largest private company in the US was pressured by higher costs for cattle and cocoa despite also benefiting from stronger results in soybeans. For the quarter ended Aug. 31, Cargill had net income of $927 million, down from $1.94 billion a year ago, according to accounts seen Monday by Bloomberg. The company had a difficult comparison as the year-earlier quarter was significantly boosted by a tax provision tied to US President Donald Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill.
Beef packers such as Cargill, one of four that account for more than two-thirds of US processing capacity, have been competing to buy cattle from the smallest American herd in five decades. Only recently has profitability in beef packing started to improve as cattle prices have eased. Meanwhile, Cargill pointed to “mark-to-market losses on cocoa” in the quarter. Prices for the beans have swung dramatically this year, surging more than 70% from the beginning of June through the end of August.
The world’s largest agricultural commodities trader benefited during the quarter from record profit margins in soy and canola in the wake of increased US targets for biofuel blending. Cargill said better earnings in North America were partly offset by lower results for grain trading and bioenergy in Latin America, Europe, the Middle East and Africa. The Minneapolis-based company has been restructuring for more than a year, having already cut its business units to three from five.
Source: Bloomberg Markets · Summarized by HeadlinesBriefing