We are a leading global agribusiness and food company with integrated operations
that stretch from the farm field to consumer foods. We believe we are a leading:
global oilseed processor and producer of vegetable oils and protein meals, based
on processing capacity;
global grain processor;
seller of packaged vegetable oils worldwide, based on sales;
producer and seller of wheat flours and bakery mixes, dry milled corn products
and milled rice products in North and South America based on volume; and
producer of sugar and ethanol in Brazil and global trader and merchandiser
of sugar, based on volume.
We conduct our operations in five segments: Agribusiness, Edible Oil Products,
Milling Products, Sugar and Bioenergy and Fertilizer. We refer to the Edible
Oil and Milling Products segments collectively as our Food and Ingredients businesses.
Our strategy is to profitably grow our position in our core Agribusiness grain
and oilseed value chains, capitalizing on our key origination, logistics, processing
and risk management competencies while pursuing operational excellence. We also
are focused on growing our value added Food & Ingredients businesses so
that over time they represent a more significant percentage of our earnings.
Our Agribusiness segment is an integrated, global business principally involved
in the purchase, storage, transport, processing and sale of agricultural commodities
and commodity products. Our Agribusiness operations and assets are located in
North and South America, Europe and Asia-Pacific, and we have merchandising
and distribution offices throughout the world.
Our Food and Ingredients businesses, which consist of two reportable business
segments: Edible Oil Products and Milling Products, include businesses that
produce and sell edible oil based products, including vegetable oils, shortenings,
margarines and mayonnaise and milled grain products such as wheat flours, bakery
mixes, corn-based products and rice. The operations and assets of our Edible
Oil Products segment are located in North and South America, Europe and Asia-Pacific
and the operations and assets of our Milling Products segment are located in
North and South America.
Our Sugar and Bioenergy segment produces and sells sugar and ethanol derived
from sugarcane, as well as energy derived from the sugar and ethanol production
process, through our operations in Brazil. Our operations in this segment also
include global trading and merchandising of sugar and ethanol.
Our Fertilizer segment is involved in producing, blending and distributing
fertilizer products for the agricultural industry in South America, with production
and blending assets and operations in Argentina and port facilities in Brazil
and Argentina.
In our Agribusiness segment, while there is a degree of seasonality in the
growing season and procurement of our principal raw materials, such as oilseeds
and grains, we typically do not experience material fluctuations in volume between
the first and second half of the year since we are geographically diversified
between the northern and southern hemispheres, and we sell and distribute products
throughout the year. However, the first fiscal quarter of the year has generally
been our weakest in terms of financial results due to the timing of the North
and South American oilseed harvests as the North American harvest peaks in the
third and fourth fiscal quarters and the South American harvest peaks in the
second fiscal quarter, and thus our North and South American grain merchandising
and oilseed processing activities are generally at lower levels during the first
quarter.
In our Food and Ingredients segments, demand for certain of our food items
may be influenced by holidays and other annual events.
We experience seasonality in our Sugar and Bioenergy segment as a result of
the Brazilian sugarcane growing cycle. In the Center-South of Brazil, the sugarcane
harvesting period typically begins in late March/early April and ends in late
November/early December. This creates fluctuations in our sugar and ethanol
inventories, which usually peak in December to cover sales between crop harvests.
These factors result in earnings being weighted towards the second half of the
year. This segment is also impacted by the yield development of the sugarcane
crops over the course of the crop year with sugar content reaching its highest
level in the middle of the crop. As a result of the above factors, there may
be significant variations in our results of operations from one quarter to another.
In our Fertilizer segment, we are subject to seasonal trends based on the
South American agricultural growing cycle as farmers typically purchase the
bulk of their fertilizer needs in the second half of the year.
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