Annual Report 2014

Never has Cargill been so Brazilian. In 2015 we will celebrate our 50^th anniversary in Brazil. We started out with a small processing plant and a hybrid seed corn production facility in the city of Avaré, state of São Paulo. Today, we are one of the country’s largest agribusiness and consumer products companies.

This growth comes as a result of our permanent commitment. We have always believed in Brazil, even during politically and economically challenging times, such as in 2014 when we had to be more cautious and, at the same time, preserve the investments that would enable us to maintain our growth.

We have invested in expanding our river port terminal in Santarém (PA) from two million to five million metric tons capacity, in an effort to optimize grain logistics. Part of this additional grain will come by river from the Miritituba (PA) transshipment terminal, which received its installation permit in late 2014 and will be ready for operations in 2016.

We have also opened Cargill’s first biorefinery in Brazil in Castro (PR). This innovative complex represents one of the company’s largest investments worldwide. We have also expanded the soybean processing plant in Três Lagoas (MS) and concluded work to increase production capacity of refined oils and vegetable fats at the Itumbiara (GO) and Mairinque (SP) plants.

In Quirinópolis (GO), we have started construction work to upgrade Usina São Francisco, a sugar and ethanol mill owned by SJC, our joint venture with the USJ Group. The R$160 million project includes construction of a plant to process corn into ethanol, an innovation in this industry in Brazil.

The pursuit of process improvements and greater efficiency led us to concentrate financial, accounting, tax, and administrative activities in the Shared Services Center in Uberlândia (MG). This structure is part of a global strategy designed to offer a more intelligent approach to shared services, enabling business units to focus their efforts on serving their customers. About 100 employees are already working in the Brazilian Shared Services Center, a number that should increase to 250 by late 2015, when it will also house human resources, information technology, and procurement services.

As a result of all these measures, the company earned a net profit of R$481 million on net revenues of R$26.2 billion. These results were made possible only because we have people who are committed to our values and objectives. To attract such people, we have maintained our internship programs where we selected young professionals who will be trained under our philosophy, directing them towards a future where they can hold prominent positions. On the other end, we have reformulated Programa Novo Tempo (New Time Program), which provides guidance to managers over 50 years of age who have already made important contributions to our growth in Brazil and who are now transitioning their careers looking for new challenges.

Sustainability has matured, representing important progress not only in running our businesses, but also in our dealings with our stakeholders. This publication, for instance, has been prepared for the second consecutive year based on Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) guidelines, which provides new opportunities to monitor our performance indicators. We have thus maintained our commitment to improve reporting and the transparency of our communication.

During the 2014 United Nations (UN) Climate Summit, we made a global commitment to support the New York Declaration of Forests. This means that our operations around the world will work to fight the dramatic deforestation problem.

We are also doing our part in Brazil, maintaining projects such as the More Sustainable Soy project in partnership with The Nature Conservancy, an NGO, to encourage sustainability of the supply chain to conserve forests and rivers of the Tapajós Basin. Another example is our signing Protocolo Verde de Grãos (Green Grain Protocol), which sets stricter guidelines and criteria for commercial transactions between companies and farmers of the state of Pará, to ensure that the grain traded does not come from deforested areas. In the palm supply chain, all oil procurement, processing, and trading procedures have been certified under the criteria established by the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil, a Brazilian achievement that will be an example for other countries to follow.

The year of 2015 will be challenging, with complex macroeconomic and political scenarios. We do, however, remain confident in the country’s growth and development potential. We also remain committed to feeding people and thriving next to our employees, farmers, suppliers, customers, consumers, communities, government, and society. All are invited to come with us on our growth path.

Luiz Pretti | CEO