Excerpts from the Wall Street Journal:
Agricultural trading firm Louis Dreyfus Commodities BV on Monday reported a slight increase in earnings in the first half of 2014 as revenue rose 16% after large grain harvests.
Net income rose to $260 million from $258 million, as revenue jumped to $33.7 billion from $29.2 billion. The Netherlands-based company, founded in 1851, ranks among the world’s largest traders and processors of agricultural commodities.
Louis Dreyfus and other major commodity trading houses are riding a boom in global crop production that has replenished global stockpiles and provided processors cheaper supplies to turn into food and other products. Driven by favorable weather, record-setting grain harvests are expected in the U.S. and Europe this year, the International Grains Council said in a report last week.