Drought hurts Cargill as 3Q profits drop 42%

Cargill Inc. reported net earnings of $445 million in its fiscal third-quarter, down 42 percent from a record $766 million in the same period a year ago, Bloomberg reports. Revenue for the quarter that ended Feb. 28 edged up 1 percent at $32.2 billion.

The Wall Street Journal says the Twin Cities-based agribusinesses giant blamed last year's drought for higher costs on its meat and farm service businesses.

“In North America, our meat processing businesses were pressured by the drought-related high cost of feed ingredients,” Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Greg Page said in the news release. "Even though many of our global food ingredients businesses experienced higher input costs, they nearly matched their strong performance in last year’s third quarter.”