World Grain - March 2013 - 18

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Bunge earnings plummet in 2012
WHITE PLAINS, NEW YORK, U.S. — Bunge reported on Feb. 7
net income of $64 million, or 19¢ per share, for 2012, a signiﬁcant
drop from the $942 million or $6.07 per share in 2011.
Net sales increased to $61 billion for the year, from $56 billion in
the previous year.
Chairman and Chief Executive Ofﬁcer Alberto Weisser said the
fourth quarter was weaker than expected, but noted that for the full
year, the agribusiness segment achieved record EBIT of over $1 billion. EBIT for the segment in the previous year was $868 million.
“After a slow beginning to the year, food & ingredients recovered
and delivered a solid second half. Food & ingredients EBIT for the
year dropped to $166 million from $235 million in the previous year.
Drew Burke, chief ﬁnancial ofﬁcer, said Bunge expects a much
improved year in 2013.

“In agribusiness, the combination of tight global supplies and
large crops in South America should make this region the principal supplier of soybean, soy products and grain exports until
Northern Hemisphere harvests begin later in the year. At that time
we expect a similar situation to develop in the Northern Hemisphere. Considering our global network of assets, expertise in
managing risk and export capabilities, this market environment
ﬁts us well,” said Burke.
“In food & ingredients, we expect the solid performance in the
second half of 2012 to continue. We should beneﬁt from the fullyear results of our acquired wheat mill in Mexico and the start-up of
operations at our new multi-oil reﬁning facility in India and our new
reﬁning and packaging facility in Decatur, Alabama, both of which
should improve our operating efﬁciencies.”

Emerald grain merchants discuss new growing season
CRESWICK, AUSTRALIA — More than 35 grain merchants from
Emerald Grain’s Australia-wide network met in Creswick, Victoria
the week of Feb. 10 to plan for the 2013-14 growing season.
“Our grain merchants are the grower-facing part of Emerald and
therefore a hugely important part of the business,” said Emerald Executive Director, Distribution, Mick Cattanach. “We’ve gone from
the three of us to nearly 200 employees in under 10 years,” he said.

The conference began in Melbourne on Feb. 11 with a tour of Emerald’s port facility. The conference also included a tour of Emerald’s
joint-venture A$2 million grain storage facility in Werneth.
The facility is operated by Emerald in conjunction with Southern
Quality Produce Cooperative Limited and local grower investors. It
handled a record 90,000 tonnes of grain and oilseed during the 201213 harvest.

Ukrainian corn exports up 1.4 million tonnes
KIEV, UKRAINE — Ukrainian corn producers exported 7.95
million tonnes of corn, an increase of 1.4 million tonnes from
last year through Feb. 3, the Agrarian Ministry of Ukraine said
on Feb. 5.
In 2012, Ukraine produced about 20 million tonnes of corn,
with more than half ready to sell to foreign buyers, said Ukrainian Agrarian Minister Mykola Prysyazhnyuk. Major consumers
of Ukrainian corn from January to November 2012 included Belgium, Egypt, Ireland, Italy, Portugal and Spain.
In 2012, Ukraine began cooperation with China regarding the
supply of corn. The eastern Asian nation plans to buy approximately 3 million tonnes of Ukrainian corn per year. To help boost
Ukraine’s corn production, in July 2012, China provided a $3 billion loan for Ukraine’s agricultural sector. The loan is intended to
ﬁnance the increase of the trade volume, raise productivity, and
stimulate equipment modernization in the Ukrainian agricultural
sector. With the money, Ukraine will be able to purchase cropprotection agents, seed and equipment from China, as well as invest in land cultivation and set up a plant for organic fertilizer
processing and crop-protection agent production.
Currently, Ukraine has a 12.9% share of the global corn market.
In 2011, Ukraine took the third spot in the global corn supplier
rating, behind the U.S. and Argentina.
Besides its strong position on the global market of corn, Ukraine
has an 18.5% share of the world barley market and a 4.5% share
of the wheat market. Total grain exports in 2012 reached over
16.25 million tonnes, including 6.04 million tonnes of wheat and
1.98 million tonnes of barley, Prysyazhnyuk said.
In 2012, Ukraine increased its agricultural exports by 40%.
Ukraine’s sunﬂower oil export volume was the world’s largest in
2011 and 2012.
For more information, see Page 94.

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World Grain - March 2013

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