Cargill is the world’s largest agricultural trader, so you might expect them to be able to weather the financial crisis. Especially given the record prices being experienced in beef and corn.
Profits, however, are down 66% on last year. Despite their “advantage in trading because they are involved in the physical markets”, they were wrong-footed by the market volatility and the prevailing risk-on/risk-off mood of the markets, which led to large sums of money moving rapidly in and out of Cargill’s sector.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/178de96a-f34a-11e0-b11b-00144feab49a.html