010439 Cargill Earnings Fall 48%April 22, 2001Minnetonka, MN - Third-quarter earnings at Cargill Inc. fell 48% due to weak economic conditions in many of the company's markets. For the three months ended Feb. 28, Cargill earned $99 million, it said in a statement. Earnings for the first nine months of fiscal 2001 totaled $445 million, an 8% decrease from last year. The privately owned company did not release other quarterly performance figures, as per its usual practice. “Continued weak economic conditions in many of Cargill's markets slowed the steady earnings pace set during the first half,” said chairman and chief executive Warren Staley. “However, the company's beef processing and financial businesses generated solid earnings, and despite the weakness in agricultural commodity markets, our grain and oilseeds businesses also delivered good results.” Staley said increases in energy costs hurt the company's energy-intensive processing businesses. That came on top of excess capacity across the industry, and successive years of big supplies against weak global demand -- conditions that depressed margins in a number of key Cargill businesses, including fertilizer, juice, flour milling and steel. The Minnetonka-based Cargill, one of the largest privately held companies in the nation, is an international marketer, processor and distributor of agricultural, food, financial and industrial products and services with 85,000 employees in 60 countries.
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