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Cargill annual report: ‘A year like no other’

17-Aug-2020 - Last updated on 17-Aug-2020 at 11:13 GMT

Cargill's annual report highlights the company's response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Pic: Cargill

Global agri-food company’s annual report highlights team members’ agility and perseverance while helping customers and communities navigate the COVID-19 pandemic.

Despite challenges facing the food and ag system and disruptions from the COVID-19 pandemic, Cargill’s FY 2020 annual report, Nourishing the World, paints a positive message on how its team’s resiliency and agility helped to keep supply chains moving to put food on family tables around the globe.

Fiscal 2020 was a year like no other, it states, but in such a challenging environment, Cargill claims to have ‘anchored to its purpose and values’.

“The last year taught us that we are capable of so much more than we previously thought. We can move faster, with more agility, navigating a crisis while keeping our people’s wellbeing front and center,” said David MacLennan, Cargill’s chairman and CEO.

“We are grateful to our employees, customers and other partners who worked around the clock to nourish the world and maintain confidence in the food and ag systems. Together, we are stronger.”

Highlights from Cargill’s 2020 annual report include:

Safety: Cargill’s commitment to safety has enabled the company to steadily remove risks, reducing injury rates by 88% over the past 30 years. As the COVID-19 crisis emerged, Cargill facilities adapted pandemic response plans to quickly deploy robust safety protocols worldwide. The company has also reduced incidents related to food safety, quality or regulatory issues by 26% over the past year.

Responsibility: The company donated $115m in charitable contributions in the last fiscal year, providing relief during the current pandemic and helping farmers and communities prosper for the long term. Cargill provided meals to frontline workers and others in need and focused on closing the gender gap in agriculture, launching a $10m, three-year partnership with CARE’s She Feeds the World program. Working across nine countries, this program will boost the earnings potential of female farmers.

Sustainability: Cargill’s commitment to protect the planet has not wavered. In FY 2020, the company announced a new target to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from global supply chains (Scope 3) by 30% by 2030, measured per ton of product. To protect and enhance water resources, Cargill announced context-based water targets in priority watersheds, increasing access to clean water in communities that need it most. And the company achieved significant milestones in key supply chains, including soy, cocoa, ocean transportation, beef, aqua nutrition and palm.

“Cargill continues to take aggressive action against key sustainability goals, as agriculture is how we will empower farmers to mitigate climate change, regenerate soils and improve water use,” said Ruth Kimmelshue, Cargill’s chief sustainability officer.