Privately held %Cargill, the world’s largest agricultural commodities trader, is cutting thousands of jobs globally after missing its own internal profit targets.
The Minneapolis-based company, which is also the biggest privately held company in America, is moving to cut 5% of its 164,000 workforce, or about 8,200 positions, according to media reports.
The reductions won’t affect the company’s executive team but will impact senior leaders and lower-level employees of the company.
Cargill has seen its earnings shrink after bumper crops and oversupply have sent corn and soybean prices falling.
At the same time, Cargill has taken a hit from the smallest U.S. cattle herd in seven decades.
The company has spent much of the past decade turning itself into the third-largest American beef processor.
Cargill had previously told employees that it would reduce its number of business units to three from five after less than one-third of its businesses reached their earnings goals in the current fiscal year.
Although its financial results are not made public, Bloomberg News has reported that Cargill’s profits declined to $2.48 billion U.S. in the fiscal year ended this past May.
That’s the lowest profit at the company in nearly a decade and less than half the record profit of $6.7 billion U.S. that Cargill made in the 2021-22 fiscal year.
Cargill CEO Brian Sikes, age 56, took over leadership of the company in early 2023 just as the company’s focus on beef began to crumble.
Analysts expect more pressure on Cargill moving forward given the current state of the agriculture sector in the U.S., both crops and beef.
Cargill’s stock does not trade on a public exchange.