Meat + Poultry - September 2008 - 18

BUSINESS NOTES
Cargill net climbs 55 percent in ﬁscal 2008

OPTIMIZES PRODUCTIVITY.
MINIMIZES HANDLING.
PUTS FOOD SAFETY FIRST.
THAT'S TODAY'S FORMAX .
®

LOADING AND DEPOSITING SYSTEMS.
Superior end-to-end automation.
STACK DEPOSITING SYSTEM
Capable of loading 150 or
more stacks per minute into
tight fitting packaging wells
with minimal labor.

SHAVED MEAT
DEPOSITING SYSTEM
Automates the loading of
shaved portions of various sizes
into product tubs, pod packs or
standard packages.

LOADING SYSTEM
Servo driven to synchronize the
loading of sliced portions at high
rates of production with any
packaging machine.

TO LEARN MORE, VISIT:

TODAYSFORMAX.COM
18 191st
I Street,
MEAT&POULTRY
I ILSeptember
2008 I
USA: 9150
P.O. Box 330, Mokena,
60448 (near Chicago)
708-479-3500 E-mail:marketing@formaxinc.com ©2008 Formax,® Inc. FM0801(I)

Net earnings for Minneapolis-based Cargill for the ﬁscal year ended May 31
were $3.64 billion, up 55 percent from $2.34 billion during the previous year.
After factoring in a $310 million gain on the sale of discontinued operations
during the fourth quarter, full-year earnings totaled $3.95 billion.
Revenue for the year increased 36 percent to $120.4 billion, while cash ﬂow
from operations rose 77 percent to $7 billion.
"Cargill posted a record ﬁnancial performance in a year of exceptionally strong
commodity demand, market turbulence and price risk," said Greg Page, chairman and CEO. "By bringing to bear our
business diversity, the full capacity of
our global assets, strong risk management and a signiﬁcant increase in capital deployed, we operated successfully
in the most volatile agricultural energy markets in decades. Despite tight stocks
of many agricultural commodities, we maintained reliable supply chains for our
customers and created value-adding solutions."
For the fourth quarter ended May 31, net earnings were up 18 percent to $744
million from $628 million during the same period of last year. The company said
the improvement was led by the origination and processing segment and the industrial segment, both of which were up substantially from the same period a
year ago. Earnings in agriculture services, food ingredients and applications and
risk management, meanwhile, were down from the same period a year ago.

Former Creekstone chief rolls out
DNA-traced pork
Northﬁeld, Ill.-based Nature's Premium Brand, a pork processing and production
operation led by John Stewart, formerly the CEO of Creekstone Farms Premium
Beef, Arkansas City, Kan., announced the rollout of its pork products that utilize DNA-based traceability. The company is using a system developed by Lawrence, Kan.-based Identigen Ltd. The company's Traceback system is one of 36
approved USDA Process Veriﬁed Programs.
Stewart, who stepped away from his position with Creekstone in 2006, said
he had been interested in working in the pork business for years, but didn't have
the time to commit to running a company like Nature's Premium until 2007, the
year the ﬁrm was founded. He said part of his
business plan involved processing premium pork
that is antibiotic-free, from Duroc pigs that are
never fed growth promotants. Offering customers traceability back to the farm level, he said, is
another marketing angle that will pay off by promoting quality and food safety beneﬁts.
"This is one way we can get closer to the consumer and differentiate our product," Stewart said. Nature's Premium produces fresh pork, deli meats, sausage and
bacon for the foodservice and retail segments and packages will now include a
"DNA TraceBack" label. Retailers in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Rhode Island, Massachusetts and California carry the Nature's Premium products.
"DNA is a uniquely accurate, permanent and tamper-proof identiﬁcation tool,"
said Donald Marvin, Identigen's CEO and president. DNA-based traceability offers processors extra assurance, he adds "because it uses nature's bar code - the
unique DNA of every animal."
www.MEATPOULTRY.com

http://www.TODAYSFORMAX.COM http://www.MEATPOULTRY.com

Meat + Poultry - September 2008

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Meat + Poultry - September 2008