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 stake in fertilizer firm The Mosaic Co., in this year’s second quarter, Cargill earned $832m, almost double the $420m it generated last year. Revenues, Cargill said, rose 16% to $31.1bn.

“Cargill generated strong results across the breadth of our businesses,” said Cargill chairman and CEO Greg Page. “The diversity and balance built into the mix provides the company with a great deal of resilience. By tapping the connectivity among our businesses, we also put more knowledge and insight to work on behalf of customers.”

The second quarter drove robust half-year results. Net earnings reached $2.37bn, up from $1.01bn a year earlier. Excluding Mosaic, net earnings climbed 74% to $1.53bn.

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