MERRIAM, KAN. – Seaboard Corp. announced its 2021 fiscal year performance, ended Dec. 31, 2021, including operating income of $227 million in its pork segment. This is up from a $131 million for the same period during 2020. Company-wide operating income was $458 million, up from $245 million last year. 

According to the company’s filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Seaboard reported 2021 net sales of $9.23 billion compared to $7.13 billion during the same period last year.

Net earnings attributed to Seaboard were $570 million, up from $283 million in the same period a year ago. 

In the pork segment, net sales totaled $2.48 billion in 2021, a 27.8% increase over the same period in 2020, which totaled $1.94 billion. 

As an investor in Butterball LLC, Seaboard reported a loss of $20 million compared to a $10 million loss in 2020.

The SEC filing said, “…in the pork and turkey segments, the nature of the work and remote locations at some processing plants and production operations, along with restrictive national policy on immigration, have affected and could continue to negatively affect the availability and cost of labor.”

Seaboard stated that it invested $460 million in property, plants and equipment, with $343 million of that being spent on the pork segment. 

Capital expenditures budgeted for fiscal 2022 were approximately $700 million, with $450 million planned for pork. 

“The pork segment’s budget primarily includes continued investment in biogas recovery projects, normal replacement of breeding herd and other investments,” Seaboard said. “At certain hog farms, the pork segment is covering lagoons and constructing biogas upgrade facilities to capture methane and inject renewable gas to the local pipeline infrastructure.”

Seaboard reiterated statements from previous filings that the company continuing to deal with challenges related to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

“The near and long-term impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, including COVID-19 variants, on Seaboard’s operations and the global economy are unknown and impossible to predict with any level of certainty,” the filing said.