Cargill Reports 3Q Earnings, Doubles Profits

MINNEAPOLISCargill reported $729 million in earnings from continuing operations in the fiscal 2010 third quarter ended Feb. 28, 2010. The company also reported $169 million net gain from discontinued operations, which reflected the sale of the Brazilian poultry and pork business. Net earnings in the third quarter were $898 million, compared with $326 million in the same period a year ago.

Excluding earnings from its majority investment in The Mosaic Company and from discontinued operations, Cargill's results nearly doubled from last year's third quarter. In the first nine months of fiscal 2010, Cargill earned $1.91 billion, compared with last year's $3.01 billion.

Earnings in agriculture services were lifted by the late, large North American harvest. Origination and processing results jumped ahead of last year, as the company's commodity trading and processing operations benefited from the pickup in economic activity. Food ingredients and applications results were improved from the recessionary conditions that negatively affected last year's third quarter.

"The growth in Cargill's third-quarter earnings was broad based, with all five of our business segments posting improved results from a year ago," said Greg Page, Cargill chairman and CEO. "Because of the connections across our diverse portfolio of businesses, we were able to benefit from the faster pace of economic recovery occurring in emerging markets. In developed countries, where economic conditions are improving more slowly, the focus on supporting the supply chain management needs of our customers helped results, as did the attention paid internally to managing costs and running our facilities as efficiently as possible."