Profits fall 58 percent at Bunge
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- July
- 23
Weakness in fertilizer markets contributed to sharply lower earnings at Bunge Ltd., the White Plains-based agribusiness giant that is major fertilizer supplier to Brazilian farmers.
Bunge reported net income of $313 million, or $2.28 a share, during the second quarter. That was down 58 percent from net income of $751 million, or $5.45 a share, a year earlier. Sales fell 23 percent to $11 billion.
Farmers cut back on their harvests last year after commodity prices plunged in response to the credit crisis and one of the worst economic crises since the Great Depression. With farmers planting less, that ate into the demand for the fertilizers and other agricutural products that Bunge sells to farmers.
Lower fertilizer prices contributed to a $53 million loss in Bunge’s fertilizer business during the quarter, a sharp reversal from the profit of $393 million a year earlier.
Other Bunge businesses also have suffered. Profits fell 33 percent in the company’s edible oil products unit, 75 percent in its milling products business and 27 percent in its agribusiness unit.
Alberto Weisser, Bunge’s chairman and chief executive officer, said that he is optimistic that business conditions in the agricultural markets will improve in the second half of the year.
“A large North American (soybean) harvest, which according to early indicators is likely, should provide us with ample volumes for our agribusiness operations in that region,” Weisser said in a written statement.
This entry was posted
on Thursday, July 23rd, 2009 at 2:32 pm by Jay Loomis.
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