Cargill’s profits more than tripled in the second quarter of its fiscal year, the US agribusiness giant said yesterday as the company benefited from rising commodity prices. The company booked net earnings of US$1.49bn for the three months to 30 November, up from $489m a year ago. As well as the benefit from higher commodity prices, Cargill was also lapping last year’s second quarter, when profits from The Mosaic Co. were hit by lower crop fertilizer prices. Neverthless, excluding its... ...Read more »

Cargill has removed expatriate employees from Ivory Coast following the outbreak of post-election violence in the country. The company said that it had “temporarily removed our small number of expatriates from the country and have put in place measures to support the safety and security of our Ivorian employees”. Cargill added that it was monitoring the situation and following the advice being given by foreign governments and the United Nations. The violence erupted after Ivory Coast... ...Read more »

Food Standards Australia New Zealand has reviewed a request by Cargill to increase the maximum permitted levels of steviol glycosides, the sweetening agent in stevia, in order to provide a better taste profile. If accepted, the maximum stevia sweetener content would be raised for ice cream, water based beverages, brewed soft drinks, formulated beverages and flavoured soy beverages. An acceptable daily intake (ADI) of 0-4 mg/kg bodyweight, expressed as steviol equivalents, was established by FSANZ... ...Read more »

A senior executive at food giant Cargill has said international food manufacturers should innovate more effectively to seize new markets, especially in the developing world.Cargill executive vice president Frank van Lierde was speaking at the first seminar of an event hosted by the CIAA in Brussels last Thursday (18 November), which debated the potential riches that could be earned by exports to emerging markets. Van Lierde said middle-class consumers in emerging markets were increasingly sophisticated.... ...Read more »

Australian food manufacturer Goodman Fielder has terminated the sale of its edible fats and oils division to Cargill after regulators opposed the deal.The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) said in March that it planned to oppose the A$240m (US$238.5m) sale as it would lead to a “significant concentration of refining assets in Australia”. The ACCC said a deal would also remove “one of only a small number of competing refiners that offer a wide range of fats and... ...Read more »

All Kit Kats sold in Australia will next year be made using UTZ-certified cocoa, brand owner Nestle has announced.UTZ cocoa is already used in the four-finger Kit Kats on sale in Australia but Nestle has pledged to switch all of the brand’s SKUs to the certified cocoa during next year. Andrew McIver, business executive manager for confectionery within Nestle Australia, said the exact timing of the changes depended upon enough certified cocoa becoming available to satisfy production. McIver... ...Read more »

The Cargill Pork and Cargill Animal Nutrition businesses of Cargill, Inc., have collaborated to open the Cargill Sow Innovation Center located in Sugar Grove, Kentucky, in support of the company’s animal welfare efforts and to further improve pork production. Cargill’s presence in Sugar Grove dates back to 1992. The center will conduct research focused on maximizing sow lifetime reproductive performance, increasing pig weaning weight, improving pig nutrition while also developing new... ...Read more »

US food giant Cargill said yesterday that it believes there will be demand across the EU for stevia, the natural, low-calorie sweetener awaiting regulatory approval from Brussels. Cargill, which develops stevia sweeteners for food and drink makers and sells its own branded tabletop sweetener under the Truvia trademark, is eyeing opportunities in the EU for the ingredient. Zanna McFerson, assistant vice president of Cargill’s health and nutrition arm, told just-food that the company has been... ...Read more »

Cargill has announced a three-year US$5 million commitment to support sustainable cocoa in Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana, including a partnership with CARE to sponsor a new program of activities to improve the livelihoods of cocoa farmers and their families in Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire. Cocoa is the largest industry and main export in the Côte d’Ivoire, with almost a quarter of its inhabitants somehow involved in the cocoa trade, and is inextricably linked to the country’s fragile... ...Read more »

Food giant Cargill has announced a $13 million dollar plan to upgrade the wastewater treatment system of its Wagga Wagga beef processing facility, in order to fully capture biogas emitted during treatment, in a move designed to reduce the facility’s carbon footprint by over 17% and significantly improve the facility’s water discharge quality. The project is being implemented in partnership with the NSW Department of Environment, Climate Change and Water (DECCW) who contributed AU$ 2.9 million... ...Read more »