MINNEAPOLIS — Cargill had $763 million in earnings from continuing operations for the third quarter ended Feb. 28, which marked a 30% increase from $588 million in the previous year’s third quarter. The company recorded $342 million attributable to its majority investment in The Mosaic Co., which is income now classified as earnings from discontinued operations. Cargill’s third-quarter net earnings were $1.11 billion, a 23% increase from $898 million in the previous year’s third quarter.

Third-quarter consolidated revenues, excluding Mosaic, were $30.5 billion, a 21% increase.


“Cargill posted solid earnings in a period of volatile commodity markets and geopolitical change,” said Greg Page, chairman and chief executive officer for Minneapolis-based Cargill. “All of us in agriculture are living with high levels of price volatility in which small changes in the quantity of production are having dramatic impacts on price.

“Cargill’s ability to focus on the factors of supply and demand, while gauging external events that can uproot market fundamentals temporarily, is critical to the risk management services we provide to our customers and to our own financial performance.”

Four Cargill business segments with increased third-quarter earnings were origination and processing, food ingredients and applications, risk management and financial, and industrial. Earnings were down for the agriculture services segment.

For the first nine months of the fiscal year, Cargill earnings from continuing operations were $2.29 billion, up 47% from the same time period of the previous year, and Cargill revenues, excluding Mosaic, were $84.7 billion. Cargill’s nine-month net income of $3.48 billion compared with $1.91 billion in the same time period of the previous year.