Cargill Buys Biofuels Supplier to Grow Beyond Grains
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The world’s largest agricultural commodities trader Cargill Inc. is boosting its renewable fuels and sugar operation in Brazil after a period of shrinking earnings as the price of corn and soybeans tumbled.
The largest privately held company in the U.S. agreed to buy another 50% stake of SJC Bioenergia, giving it full ownership, Cargill said. Neither company revealed terms.
Cargill ranks No. 21 on the Transport Topics list of agriculture and food processing private carriers.
The move comes as the Brazilian government is expanding the use of biofuels. It also helps Cargill diversify after the company missed profit targets due to falling grain prices and cut about 5% of its global workforce.
READ MORE: Cargill Cutting 1,100 Jobs With Arkansas Plant Closure
“Having SJC as a company 100% controlled by Cargill is an important reinforcement of our growth strategy in renewable energies,” Paulo Sousa, president at Cargill in Brazil, said in a statement.
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SJC turns sugarcane and corn into raw sugar, ethanol, corn oil and DDG, a byproduct of corn ethanol used for animal feed. It has two mills in the state of Goias, with the capacity to crush 9 million tons of sugarcane a year.
Cargill expanded its animal nutrition portfolio last year in partnership with the major Brazilian farming cooperative Coamo. In the U.S., Cargill has spent much of the past decade becoming the third-largest U.S. beef processor.
