📊 Sugar Exit Strategy / 🌾 Cash-filled Cover Crops / 🗞 Ag: By the Numbers

Cargill is taking its turn with one of the latest trends. And thankfully, it’s not anything like a corporate TikTok account.

The commodity giant is selling its stake in the world’s largest sugar trader, Alvean. The buyer? Cargill’s partner in the business and Brazil’s sugar giant, Copersucar.

Alvean was established in 2014 as a 50/50 joint venture between the two companies, and it’s been the king of the hill, responsible for 20% of global sugar trading.

So you mentioned a ‘trend’... Cargill credited the move to being part of a “portfolio review,” but it comes after several other powerhouses have dumped their sugar trading exploits in recent years.

ADM was the trendsetter when they left the sugar trade game in 2016.
In 2018, Wilmar International acquired Bunge’s sugar trading business.
Global commodity trader Olam International emptied out its sugar trading desk in 2019.
And earlier this year, U.S. Sugar agreed to buy Imperial Sugar from Louis Dreyfus Company.

The sell-offs are primarily due to sugar’s bumper crop status the past several years. With larger harvests, market prices were stable. And because market volatility is how traders make significant profits, many decided to exit those steady-state sugar businesses to invest elsewhere.

Zoom Out: Sugar trading is a huge business, with an average of 64 million tonnes exchanged on the global market every year. India and Brazil dominate sugar production, each producing over 29 million tonnes annually.

→ Cattle ghosting. Cody Easterday of Washington pleaded guilty to swindling Tyson Foods and the CME group out of $244 million from contracts for the buying and feeding out of 200,000 cattle that didn’t exist.

→ Put a patent on it. Farmobile received a U.S. patent for its cloud-based system that facilitates data collection, tracking, monitoring, and sharing in real-time.

→ Grow smarter, not harder. BASF launched its Grow Smart Live app to help farmers with crop input recommendations by evaluating products, ROI potential, rebates available, and more.

→ It’s back. A new wave of African Swine Fever in northern China wiped out 20% of the region’s breeding herd, causing resurgence fears on the disease’s potential to spread.

→ Palm oil blocked. The Sri Lanka government banned palm oil imports and ordered producers to begin phasing out production due to the crop's harsh toll on the environment.

→ Crop protection pals. Corteva Agriscience and Ginkgo Bioworks have teamed up to find the next generation of sustainable solutions via cell engineering and synthetic biology.

→ Ports are flooded...with traffic. Leading to a backup of many agricultural and food exports, the Port of Los Angeles is processing 47% more containers than February 2020. It's the most in its history as global trade makes up for pandemic losses.

Cover crops are ready for their time to shine, and one startup is doing its best job to make that a reality.

At the intersection of plant breeding and genome editing, CoverCress has created a winter variety of pennycress that’s getting a lot of industry attention.

And this pennycress will be raking in more than just a few pennies…

The winter cover crop can be harvested and processed into high-quality food oil, meal products for animal feed, or even low carbon feedstock for diesel or jet fuel.

Go green or go home: The trendy additional revenue stream has carbon sequestration benefits as well, a timely feature with both the Biden administration and private companies focused on ‘greener’ priorities.

Plus this: Boosted by a ‘Series B1’ round of funding, CoverCress has more than just dollars in the bank. They’ve got value chain buy-in.

Bayer, Bunge, and Renewable Energy Group are all investors, giving CoverCress favorable industry connections across genetics, crushing, and production.

Where this goes: CoverCress is targeting commercial production by fall 2022 with the hope of having 250,000 acres planted in 2023 across the Corn Belt.

Behind every efficient operation is a fleet of farm implements that drive the business to success.

And if you’re looking for that next-level piece of equipment that can give you an edge across all seasons, look no further.

Amazone has what you’re looking for.

Here’s a sample of what this German company’s first U.S. customers are trying:

Fertilizer spreaders that cast urea up to 120 feet and PK up to 177 feet, with the precision of up to 128 sections.
Argus Twin radar sensors that monitor the spread pattern and WindControl to change the spinner speed and drop point in certain wind conditions.
High-speed tillage discs and a combinational tillage tool with different specs and options to fit any farmers' needs.

Want to scope out all Amazone has to offer? Dive in and explore.

Or is getting involved in an expanding dealer network and a growing U.S. business of interest? Touch base here.

107.400 cents: Yesterday’s record-setting high for the Lean Hogs June contract on the CME. This further proves strong hog demand thanks to sky-high Chinese demand, the upcoming grilling season, and returning foodservice demand.

$20 million: Another day, another price-fixing settlement dollar. JBS USA will settle a consumer class-action suit related to fixing prices for pork dating back to 2009.

$100 billion: The allocation of funds towards broadband and internet improvements as part of President Biden’s $2.3 trillion infrastructure package that will help rural families and farm-based technologies.