Cargill’s Revenue Hits 4-Year Low Amid Falling Crop Prices
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Cargill Inc. revenue declined to its lowest point in four years as the largest private company in the U.S. continues to restructure in the face of declining crop prices and a shrinking American cattle herd.
The company posted revenue of $154 billion in the year ended May 31, according to an annual report posted on its website. That’s down from about $160 billion a year earlier and the lowest since 2021, when revenue was reported at $134 billion.
Cargill has been restructuring its business for about a year now. The company reduced the number of business units to three from five and cut about 8,000 jobs at the end of last year.
“We’re making strategic decisions to fuel growth for our company and the customers we serve,” CEO Brian Sikes said in the annual report, citing a “multiyear effort to simplify and modernize” that was started last August.
Cargill didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment on the report.
Lower crop prices are having an impact across the industry as Minneapolis-based Cargill and its storied rivals — Archer-Daniels-Midland Co., Bunge Global SA and Louis Dreyfus Co. — grapple with squeezed profits.
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Cargill ranks No. 21 on the Transport Topics sector list of the largest agriculture and food processing carriers. ADM ranks No. 11 on that sector list and No. 77 on the overall private TT100.
For Cargill, which has grown to be an American beef giant, the smallest cattle herd in seven decades has also posed challenges to the business. Herds sizes have been shrinking for the past several years as ranchers culled due to high interest rates, expensive feed and persistent drought. U.S. cattle supplies now stand at the lowest since 1951.
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The smaller herds have sent cattle prices to record highs, hurting margins for meat processors like Cargill. U.S. beef production is forecast to drop to the lowest since 2016.
Cargill spent years refashioning itself from a global grains trader into a protein powerhouse. The meat business became such a priority that when former CEO David MacLennan stepped down, the baton was passed to Sikes, the former boss of Cargill’s protein division.
Cargill said in late July that it had agreed to sell its Malayasian animal feed producer to a local poultry farmer. The 231 million ringgit ($54 million) deal is expected to close by the end of November. Around the same time, Cargill said it had made a binding offer to acquire Brazilian feed producer Mig-Plus. Terms of that deal weren’t disclosed.
Meanwhile, the company in June said it was exiting its aquaculture feed business in Vietnam, including closing down two feed plants and a technical center.
