Bunge Ltd has\u00a0forecast<\/a>\u00a0lower full-year earnings in its core agribusiness unit after posting a third-quarter profit that fell 28 percent on flat revenue. The company\u2019s CEO was, however, optimistic about the future. He said that the company\u2019s trading and processing next year would benefit from cost cutting and strengthening demand for oilseeds, a key driver of revenue. He added, “The third quarter was better than the second and the fourth quarter will be better than the third.”<\/p>\n The CEO of ED&F Man is\u00a0leaving the company<\/a>\u00a0as part of a senior management reshuffle after “a very challenging year”. The company said that the move was part of a restructuring driven by difficult market conditions in its sugar business.<\/p>\n Mackprang jr. GmbH, a Hamburg-based trading house founded in 1878, is venturing into the\u00a0consumer breakfast market\u00a0<\/a>in search for higher value businesses. The company said it will source oats, corn and raisins, then mix and pack them before shipping out to China. The company\u2019s managing director said, \u201cBeing a grain trader is no more the place where you make your money so easily. Definitely not. Times are changing and we have to look for other opportunities.\u201d<\/p>\n But at least one trading company is\u00a0looking to expand\u00a0<\/a>during these tough times.\u00a0\u00a0 Sucafina, the Swiss-based coffee trader, has hired about 50 people in the past year, opened offices in Colombia and Brazil, reorganized its North American unit and is starting a business in Seattle. The company has taken out a $300 million 18-month syndicated loan to fund its expansion.<\/p>\n The company\u2019s CEO told Bloomberg, “I like to consider Sucafina the smallest of the big trade houses or the biggest of the small trade houses. If we were content to stay at this size and we weren\u2019t vertically integrated, we would eventually get acquired by someone.\u201d<\/p>\n Goldman Sachs Group Inc. is\u00a0also expanding<\/a>\u00a0their commodity operations during tough times, hiring traders from Morgan Stanley and Castleton Commodities. To be fair, though, the expansion seems to be more in energy and metals, rather than agriculture.<\/p>\n It is not just commodity trading companies that are facing headwinds; agricultural chemical companies have also been in the news this week.<\/p>\n US farmers<\/a>\u00a0have overwhelmed state governments with thousands of complaints about crop damage linked to weed killers that use a chemical known as dicamba. Farmers claim that the herbicides have harmed crops because they evaporate and drift away from where they are applied. Monsanto and BASF, who make the herbicides, say the herbicides are safe when properly applied.<\/p>\n One expert<\/a>\u00a0estimated that 3.1 million acres of non-targeted crops have been damaged by the herbicide. In Monsanto\u2019s defense, the company says it investigated 1,000 such claims, and found that in 88 percent of those cases, the farmer was to blame for faulty application of the product because \u201cthe label was not followed.\u201d However, as New Food Economy points out, the \u201clabel\u201d is 4,500-words long.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, The New York Times\u00a0has accused President Donald Trump<\/a>\u00a0of damaging people\u2019s brains, not by his angry early morning tweets, but through his lack of action on the chemical pesticide chlorpyrifos. The newspaper claims that the chemical is found in food, air and drinking water, and that human and animal studies show that it damages the brain and reduces I.Q.s while causing tremors among children. The Environmental Protection Agency banned the pesticide for most indoor residential use 17 years ago, and was preparing to ban it for agricultural and outdoor use this spring, but the Trump administration has apparently rejected the ban.<\/p>\n Campbell Soup has\u00a0announced it is joining the Plant Based Foods Association<\/a>, acknowledging reduced consumer demand for meat and dairy food. Earlier this year the company left the industry\u2019s top trade and lobbying group, the Grocery Manufacturers Association, citing the lobbying group\u2019s opposition to labeling whether food contained genetically modified ingredients.<\/p>\n The PBFA counts more than 80 companies as members but Campbell Soup will be by far its largest., \u201cWe\u2019re not trying to make the whole world vegan,\u201d a spokesman for the association told Bloomberg. \u201cAll we\u2019re doing is trying to make plant-based products available to more people.\u201d<\/p>\n In\u00a0a similar vein, McDonald\u2019s Corp\u00a0have announced<\/a>\u00a0that they will require suppliers to follow new standards for raising and slaughtering chickens. Under the new guidelines, suppliers such as Tyson Foods Inc and Cargill Inc must comply by 2024 with rules dictating the amount and brightness of light in chicken houses, provide birds with access to perches that promote natural behavior, and take other steps to improve animal welfare. Tyson and Cargill have said that they support McDonald\u2019s moves.<\/p>\n And while we are on consumer trends,\u00a0people are abandoning their supermarket trolleys for baskets<\/a>. The annual Waitrose Food & Drink Report (which covers all UK supermarkets), reports that customers are increasingly shopping little and often. One in\u00a0ten people buy what they are going to eat that night, on the way home from work. Two out of three go to the supermarket more than once a day. As the report puts it: \u201cPeople treat supermarkets like giant walk-in fridges.\u201d<\/p>\n Nestl\u00e9, Mars and Hershey have been\u00a0accused of breaking pledges<\/a>\u00a0to stop using \u201cconflict palm oil\u201d from deforested Indonesian jungles. The Rainforest Action Network (RAN) says consumers have been \u201cdeceived\u201d by promises from the brands to clean up their supply chains, which were subsequently delayed, revised or watered down.<\/p>\n Hershey\u2019s communications director responded to the allegations by saying that, \u201cWhile we remain deeply committed to pushing all stakeholders to accelerate traceability and bring full transparency to this supply chain along with our supplier partners, we realise it would take more time to achieve this goal than originally anticipated.\u201d<\/p>\n
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