Cargill reported net earnings of $425 million in the fiscal 2015 third quarter ended Feb. 28, 2015, a 33 percent increase from $319 million in the year-ago period. Through nine months, the company earned $1.63 billion, up 13 percent from last year. Revenues in the third quarter decreased 11 percent to $28.4 billion; nine-month revenues totaled $91.97 billion.
“Cargill’s results were led by strong performance in our global group of meat and animal nutrition businesses,” said David MacLennan, Cargill’s president and CEO. “In volatile petroleum markets, we saw a rebound in our energy businesses, having gained momentum from strategic changes made in the prior fiscal year. Faced with slowing growth and currency shifts in a range of markets, our food segment lagged expectations.”
The Animal Nutrition and Protein segment made the largest contribution to Cargill’s third-quarter earnings. On a combined basis, the animal protein businesses were up considerably over a solid quarter in the prior year, with strong performance in Australian beef processing, Central American poultry, and U.S. pork and turkey processing. Aided by gains in sales volume, the segment’s animal nutrition businesses jointly increased earnings from the year-ago period. The animal nutrition operations in Venezuela incurred a charge related to the country’s revision of its currency exchange system. In Velddriel, Netherlands, Cargill opened its newly expanded animal nutrition innovation center, where Cargill scientists can work with experts from nearby universities to conduct research that supports the development of new products and services for customers in dairy, poultry and swine. Also during the quarter, Cargill divested a feed yard in Lockney, Texas, a move related to the idling of its Plainview, Texas, beef processing plant in 2013. It closed a turkey slicing and packaging facility in Springfield, Missouri, relocating production to two other company locations.
