Global ingredients heavyweight Cargill is making hay. In August, the business posted 2023 revenues up 7% to $177bn, the highest reported by the 159-year-old firm.
It’s recently published 2024 Impact Report also paints a positive picture, with sustainability investments and projects equating to £100m; water savings at 38bn litres; and Scope 1 and 2 emissions down 15.8% against a 2017 baseline.
So where next? “Cargill’s purpose is about nourishing the world in a sustainable, responsible way. And that’s going to continue,” says Franck Monmont, group president for food solutions EMEA.
It comes with challenges. The middle classes are set to grow 50% to around 500m more people, leading to a need for an additional 50-60m tonnes of agri-commodity.
Cargill investment and innovation
Monmont believes Cargill is well positioned, with the right network and skill, to feed this demand. “We want to continue to be the company that’s a leader in the food chain.”
But that will only happen if investment and innovation continue, not to mention a need for the business to expand its horizons further.
The business employs over 160,000 people across 70 countries and in 125 markets. But the appetite is there for more.
Mostly this is down to a need to meet changing consumer demands, such as for healthier, more sustainable, plant-based foods.
“There are new and emerging trends around health, nutrition and indulgence, but also protein and the choices of protein,” he says.
“But also there’s more focus on vegan, so you need to offer more and we need to innovate to address these demands at scale.”
Vegan and non-cocoa products
In the spring, it launched a commercial partnership with Voyage Foods to bolster its sustainable alternatives to cocoa-based products. This resulted in a number of vegan, no nut and no dairy allergen formulations hitting the market.
Its Abunda mycoprotein caters to the meat alternative market, while its EverSweet formulation leans into sugar-reduction. The business is hitting the key market demands and plans on more launches, more tie-ups and more investments.
“We’re investing in spaces like indulgence, with a new plant at some point to cater to this alongside the whole chocolate area too.”
There are also plans to move into speciality fats, he says. This includes CBR (Non Lauric Coating Fat) and cocoa butter equivalents.
“We’re always trying to innovate on the food side,” Monmont continues. We try to align that with what we’ve seen as consumer trends."
