(Reuters) – Bunge Ltd on Wednesday reported a higher quarterly adjusted profit and raised its full-year earnings forecast, as the global farm commodities merchant benefited from higher demand for essential crops since the Ukraine crisis.
The results mirrored the robust earnings reported by rival Archer-Daniels-Midland Co on Tuesday.
Bunge’s results also highlighted how global grains merchants have weathered surging crop prices and supply chain disruptions caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The two nations supply nearly a third of the world’s wheat exports, a fifth of globally traded corn and around 80% of sunflower oil.
The Ukraine crisis was preceded by droughts and dry weather in the United States, Canada and South America that had already reduced harvests and sent food inflation to dizzying highs.
Bunge’s agribusiness unit, its largest one, reported an about 7% drop in volumes and a 14.7% rise in net sales on the back of strong oilseed crushing margins amid reduced soybean crops in South America and tightening global supplies of various vegetable oils.
Certain mark-to-market impacts, which the company describes as temporary, pushed its net income lower to $4.48 per share in the first quarter ended March 31, compared with $5.52 per share last year.
Excluding items, the St. Louis-based firm posted quarterly earnings of $4.26 per share, from $3.13 per share, a year earlier.
The company now sees full-year adjusted earnings of $11.50 per share, up from its previous forecast of $9.50 per share.
(Reporting by Ruhi Soni in Bengaluru and Karl Plume in Chicago; Editing by Shailesh Kuber)
