Cargill Plans Significant Job Cuts

By Amy Lv, Naveen Thukral and Tony Munroe
(Reuters) – Global trading house Cargill announced on Tuesday its intention to reduce its workforce by approximately 5%, equating to about 8,000 jobs, following a substantial revenue decline in its latest fiscal year due to low crop prices.

Agricultural traders like Cargill face mounting pressure as the prices of key crops, including wheat, corn, and soybeans, have plummeted to nearly four-year lows, affecting their processing margins.

Most of the job reductions will occur this year, according to company President and CEO Brian Sikes, who cited the need to streamline the organizational structure. This involves removing layers, expanding managerial responsibilities, and minimizing work duplication.

Cargill, a nearly 160-year-old company based in Minnesota, has over 160,000 employees, meaning a 5% workforce reduction would impact roughly 8,000 jobs. The company reported $160 billion in revenue for its 2024 fiscal year, a drop from the record $177 billion achieved the previous year.

While Cargill doesn’t disclose quarterly earnings, a memo from August indicated that fewer than a third of its businesses met earnings targets in the last fiscal year. Sikes assured that the impact on operations and frontline teams would be minimal as they continue to serve customers effectively.

This decision follows a previous announcement in August regarding a strategic restructuring aimed at consolidating operations from five units down to three by 2030, due to the failure to meet internal earnings goals. Bloomberg News first reported on Cargill's job cut plan.