Cargill might need an extra shot of espresso in its morning brew to tackle its to-do list these days. But that comes with the territory when you’re one of the largest privately-held companies in the U.S.
Lots of industry news has Cargill’s name floating into headlines. Here’s just a sample:
Tech nerds
Collaboration is the name of the game when it comes to blockchain, and Cargill wants to lead the pack. Working in partnership with several unidentified agrifood businesses, the company has revealed ‘Splinter,’ a new open-source software to tackle some million dollar problems.
The goal? To fix tracking and communication issues across supply chain partners – think producer → processor → distributor → retailer – while maintaining independent partners’ data privacy.
Meaty probs
On its urgent and important docket, Cargill is playing nice with Canadian labor groups. Union groups claim Cargill undermined their leadership when they attempted to better protect workers at the High River beef plant in Alberta.
The plant saw nearly half of its 2,000 workers test positive with COVID-19 last May. The talks come just as a new investigation begins for one of the two worker deaths due to the virus.
Nixing Sugar
To focus on food-processing and meat production, the company is in negotiations to sell its 50% stake in Alvean, the leading global sugar trader. While sugar prices may be high now, the trading group struggled when yields soared and prices plunged the majority of the past six years.
And they’re following suit: ADM, Bunge, and Louis Dreyfus Co. are all saying ‘hasta la vista’ to their respective sugar-related investments.