About Archer-Daniels-Midland

Archer-Daniels-Midland Company (ADM) principally engages in the merchandising and transporting agricultural commodities, and manufacturing products for use in food, beverages, feed, energy, and industrial applications, and ingredients and solutions for human and animal nutrition. The company is an indispensable global agricultural supply chain manager and processor; a premier human and animal nutrition provider; a trailblazer in groundbreaking solutions to support healthier living; an industry-leading innovator in replacing petroleum-based products; and a leader in sustainability. The company is one of the world’s leading producers of ingredients for sustainable nutrition. From staple foods, such as flour, oils, and sweeteners, to innovative alternatives like plant-based meat and dairy, ADM offers the industry’s broadest portfolio of food and beverage solutions. The company is also a leader in animal nutrition. ADM offers a range of ingredients, flavors, and solutions from nature to meet every animal’s needs. ADM is a global leader in health and well-being, with an industry-leading range of probiotics, enzymes, supplements, and more to meet the needs of consumers looking for new ways to live healthier lives. The company is also leading the way to a future of new plant-based consumer and industrial solutions to replace petroleum-based products. ADM’s broad array of products from nature are meeting needs for more sustainable solutions spanning food and beverage, fuels, and industrial and consumer products. Segments The company operates through three reportable business segments: Ag Services and Oilseeds, Carbohydrate Solutions, and Nutrition. Ag Services and Oilseeds The Ag Services and Oilseeds segment includes global activities related to the origination, merchandising, transportation, and storage of agricultural raw materials; and the crushing and further processing of oilseeds, such as soybeans and soft seeds (cottonseed, sunflower seed, canola, rapeseed, and flaxseed) into vegetable oils and protein meals. Oilseeds products produced and marketed by the segment include ingredients for food, feed, energy, and industrial customers. Crude vegetable oils produced by the segment’s crushing activities are sold ‘as is’ to manufacturers of renewable green diesel and other customers or are further processed by refining, blending, bleaching, and deodorizing into salad oils. Salad oils are sold ‘as is’ or are further processed by hydrogenating and/or interesterifying into margarine, shortening, and other food products. Partially refined oils are used to produce biodiesel and glycols or are sold to other manufacturers for use in chemicals, paints, and other industrial products. Oilseed protein meals are principally sold to third parties to be used as ingredients in commercial livestock and poultry feeds. The Ag Services and Oilseeds segment is also a major supplier of peanuts and peanut-derived ingredients to both the U.S. and export markets. In North America, cotton cellulose pulp is manufactured and sold to the chemical, paper, and other industrial markets. The Ag Services and Oilseeds segment’s grain sourcing, handling, and transportation network (including barge, ocean-going vessel, truck, rail, and container freight services) provides reliable and efficient services to the company’s customers and agricultural processing operations. The Ag Services and Oilseeds segment also includes agricultural commodity and feed product import, export, and global distribution; and structured trade finance activities. The company engages in various structured trade finance activities to leverage its global trade flows. The company has a 32.2% equity interest in Pacificor. Pacificor owns and operates grain export elevators in Kalama, Washington and Portland, Oregon. The company has a 22.5% equity interest in Wilmar International Limited (Wilmar), a Singapore publicly listed company. Wilmar is a leading global agribusiness group headquartered in Asia engaged in the businesses of packaged oils and packaged foods, oil palm cultivation, oilseeds crushing, edible oils refining, sugar milling and refining, specialty fats, oleo chemicals, biodiesel and fertilizers manufacturing, and grains processing. The company has a 50.0% equity interest in Stratas Foods LLC, a joint venture between ADM and ACH Jupiter, LLC, a subsidiary of Associated British Foods, that procures, packages, and sells edible oils in North America. The company has a 50.0% equity interest in Edible Oils Limited, a joint venture between ADM and Princes Limited to procure, package, and sell edible oils in the United Kingdom. The company also formed a joint venture with Princes Limited in Poland to procure, package, and sell edible oils in Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, and Austria. The company has a 37.5% equity interest in Olenex Sarl (Olenex), a joint venture between ADM and Wilmar that produces and sells a comprehensive portfolio of edible oils and fats to customers around the globe. In addition, Olenex markets refined oils and fats from the company’s plants in the Czech Republic, Germany, the Netherlands, Poland, and the U.K. The company has a 50.0% equity interest in SoyVen, a joint venture between ADM and Cargill to provide soybean meal and oil for customers in Egypt. The company is a supplier of raw materials to Wilmar, Stratas Foods LLC, Edible Oils Limited, SoyVen, and Olenex. Carbohydrate Solutions The Carbohydrate Solutions segment is engaged in corn and wheat wet and dry milling and other activities. The Carbohydrate Solutions segment converts corn and wheat into products and ingredients used in the food and beverage industry, including sweeteners, corn and wheat starches, syrup, glucose, wheat flour, and dextrose. Dextrose and starch are used by the Carbohydrate Solutions segment as feedstocks in other downstream processes. By fermentation of dextrose, the Carbohydrate Solutions segment produces alcohol and other food and animal feed ingredients. Ethyl alcohol is produced by the company for industrial use in products, such as hand sanitizers and ethanol for use in gasoline due to its ability to increase octane as an extender and oxygenate. Corn gluten feed and meal, as well as distillers’ grains, are produced for use as animal feed ingredients. Corn germ, a by-product of the wet milling process, is further processed into vegetable oil and protein meal. Other Carbohydrate Solutions products include citric acids, which are used in various food and industrial products. In November 2021, the company sold its ethanol production complex in Peoria, Illinois. In August 2022, the company launched two joint ventures, GreenWise Lactic and LG Chem Illinois Biochem, with LG Chem, a leading global diversified chemical company, for the U.S. production of lactic acid and polylactic acid to meet growing demand for a wide variety of plant-based products, including bioplastics. The company has a 50.0% equity interest in Hungrana Ltd., which operates a corn wet milling plant in Hungary. The company has a 50.0% equity interest in Almidones Mexicanos S.A., which operates a corn wet milling plant in Mexico. The company has a 50.0% equity interest in Aston Foods and Food Ingredients, a Russian-based sweeteners and starches business. Nutrition The Nutrition segment serves various end markets, including food, beverages, nutritional supplements, and feed premix and additives for livestock, aquaculture, and pet food. The segment engages in the manufacturing, sale, and distribution of a wide array of ingredients and solutions, including plant-based proteins, natural flavors, flavor systems, natural colors, emulsifiers, soluble fiber, polyols, hydrocolloids, probiotics, prebiotics, enzymes, botanical extracts, and other specialty food and feed ingredients. The Nutrition segment includes the activities related to the procurement, processing, and distribution of edible beans. The segment also includes activities related to the processing and distribution of formula feeds and animal health and nutrition products; and the manufacture of contract and private label pet treats and foods. The company has a 45.3% equity interest in Vimison S.A. de C.V., a leader in the animal nutrition industry in Mexico. Other Business Other Business includes the company’s remaining operations that include: ADM Investor Services, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of the company, is a registered futures commission merchant and a clearing member of all principal commodities exchanges in the U.S. ADM Investor Services International Limited, a member of several derivative and commodity exchanges and clearing houses in Europe; ADMIS Singapore Pte. Limited, a clearing member of the Singapore exchange; and ADMIS Hong Kong Limited, are wholly owned subsidiaries of ADM offering brokerage services in Europe and Asia. Insurance activities include Agrinational Insurance Company (Agrinational) and its subsidiaries. Agrinational, a wholly owned subsidiary of ADM, provides insurance coverage for certain property, casualty, marine, credit, medical, and other miscellaneous risks of the company. Agrinational also participates in certain third-party reinsurance arrangements. Methods of Distribution The company’s products are distributed mainly in bulk from processing plants or storage facilities directly to customers’ facilities. The company has developed a comprehensive transportation capability to efficiently move both commodities and processed products virtually anywhere in the world. The company owns or leases trucks, trailers, railroad tank and hopper cars, river barges, towboats, and ocean-going vessels used to transport the company’s products to its customers. Seasonality The company has seasonal financing arrangements with farmers in certain countries around the world. Typically, advances on these financing arrangements occur during the planting season and are repaid at harvest. Because the company has a higher portion of its operations in the northern hemisphere, principally North America and Europe, relative to the southern hemisphere, primarily South America, inventory levels typically peak after the northern hemisphere fall harvest and are generally lower during the northern hemisphere summer months. Research and Development During the year ended December 31, 2022, the company’s research and development expense, net of reimbursements of government grants, was $216 million. In October 2021, the company announced an agreement with Qingdao Vland Biotech Group Co., Ltd., a leading producer of enzymes and probiotics, to form a joint venture to manufacture and sell human probiotics to serve the growing Chinese demand. In August 2022, the company announced a long-term strategic partnership with Benson Hill, Inc., a food tech company unlocking the natural genetic diversity of plants, to scale innovative high protein soy ingredients that will help meet the rapidly growing demand for plant-based proteins. The partnership will serve a variety of plant-based food and beverage markets to meet the savory, sweet, and dairy needs of customers. Strategy Ag Services and Oilseeds is focused on traceability of sourcing and differentiation and working with growers on low carbon agricultural practices and products. Carbohydrate Solutions is focused on decarbonization efforts that increasingly position the segment to offer low-carbon intensity feedstocks for biosolutions and biomaterials, including fuel solutions, to replace petroleum-based products. Nutrition is focused on developing alternative proteins that can reduce the amount of animal-based proteins that are sources of methane and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. History Archer-Daniels-Midland Company was founded in 1902. The company was incorporated in Delaware in 1923.