Message From Our CEO

In another year marked by the ongoing pandemic, freight shortages and port congestion, as well as climate challenges, LDC once again navigated a complex environment to mitigate risks, minimize business disruptions and deliver for customers, while making important strides in our strategic plans.

Solid Results

In a context of sustained volatility, fueled partly by pandemic-related concerns and disruptions, as well as unfavorable weather conditions affecting crop yields, we once again focused on our role to keep essential food and agricultural supply chains moving safely, reliably and responsibly, delivering strong financial and operating results thanks to LDC’s market insight, risk management expertise, global network and agility in adapting to changing circumstances.

Both business segments contributed to our strong performance amid challenging market conditions, capitalizing on recovery from Covid-19 impacts in certain sectors owing to easing sanitary measures, securing profitable flows to meet demand and implementing successful hedging strategies. Our EBITDA rose 22.6% year on year, supported by increasing Segment Operating Results which translated into an 82.5% increase in Net Income, Group Share.

In September 2021, we entered a new chapter in LDC’s history as we completed our strategic partnership agreement with ADQ, a long-term investor with a shared vision for LDC’s future. This put LDC in an even stronger position to accelerate strategic investments in line with our ambitious growth plans to become an increasingly integrated food, feed, fibers and ingredients company.

Core Capabilities

In 2021 we continued to reinforce our core merchandizing capabilities, capacity and presence, both at origin and destination, as key drivers of profitability.

We developed our data science capabilities, enhanced systems and tools supporting commercial decisions, and continued to run global professional training programs. We also continued to develop and enhance our global asset network, adding storage capacity for rice and palm in Côte d’Ivoire, investing in capacity, efficiency and portfolio enhancements at several grains and oilseeds facilities in North America, advancing with northern export route developments in Brazil, and starting construction on an additional oilseeds crushing plant in China.

Driving Diversification

Asia was the scene of new developments in our plans for greater vertical integration in existing value chains and diversification of our portfolio through value-added products. We signed agreements with partners to bring specialty coffees to a growing Japanese market, and to produce instant coffee in Vietnam for distribution across multiple regions. In China, we launched additional, high-end B2C edible oils to complement our existing portfolio, partnered with leading e-commerce channels in the country for their distribution, and also started operating our new facility producing high-end aquatic feeds in Tianjin.

We also made positive strides in the Americas. In Brazil, we invested in storage and packaging capacity enhancements for our Kowalski business, while in the US, we invested in packaged glycerin activities and canola oil and lecithin units at Claypool, Indiana, and established a dedicated team and R&D facility in California’s San Francisco Bay Area, as the development engine for our new Plant Proteins business.

Innovation Initiatives

We also continued to embrace innovations and technologies with the potential to help meet evolving customer and consumer expectations, drive operational efficiency and sourcing transparency, and shape more sustainable food and agricultural production.

Our focus on digitalization led to efficiency, security and transparency gains, for instance through remote assistance and maintenance at industrial facilities, as well as extended robotic process automation in several business areas and regions. Covantis, our joint initiative with industry peers to modernize global post-trade operations, also advanced significantly, with the launch of a transformational blockchain platform for the industry in early 2021, which has since seen a very positive adoption rate.

Meanwhile, as part of our commitment to help meet growing demand for healthy, affordable and sustainable diet options, our LDC Innovations corporate venture capital program continued to invest in early-stage companies leveraging technologies and innovations with the potential to transform the food and agricultural industries.

Sustainability in the Spotlight

As mentioned by our Chairperson, the growing focus on finding solutions to increasingly urgent climate and other global challenges makes our company’s purpose to create fair and sustainable value increasingly crucial to everything we do.

This includes supply chain transparency as basis for responsible sourcing decisions, and in 2021 we adopted new technologies and methodologies to facilitate supply chain traceability, supporting further advances in this area across several business lines, in particular for soy and palm. This work will be fundamental to our ability to fulfill our commitment to eliminate deforestation and conversion of native vegetation for agricultural purposes from our supply chains, announced in February 2022.

We also created a dedicated Carbon Solutions Platform in 2021, to accelerate our decarbonization journey, working in collaboration with all LDC business lines as well as external experts to set and pursue science-based targets for emissions reductions in our operations and value chains.

These efforts are reflected in the sectoral commitment signed at COP26 in 2021, for accelerated action on deforestation and emissions, to support the global drive toward a net zero economy.

Alongside these key strides, we stayed close to a stakeholder group that is vital to global food security and a key partner in delivering essential goods around the world: the farming community. Throughout the year, we continued to collaborate with the Louis Dreyfus Foundation, customers, peers, experts and other partners, to train and engage with farmers on sustainable solutions and practices that allow for improved yields and food security over the long-term.

Facing Forward

As the world emerges transformed from a pandemic context, new geopolitical tensions and macroeconomic shifts are having profound impacts around the world, and particularly in the agri-commodities sector. While we take the time to analyze and understand a complex market environment and rapidly evolving context, we remain true to the mission that our business partners worldwide rely on us to fulfill: keeping agricultural supply chains moving and bringing essential products from where they are grown to where they are needed.

Our agile mindset, shared purpose and clear vision have guided our steps over 170 years, and continue to do so today as we pursue our strategic roadmap, always with the safety and wellbeing of all those who work for and with us as a top priority. As we continue to face up to regional and global challenges, and as we adapt to a ‘new normal’, I want to express my gratitude to our teams around the world, for the dedication and commitment they show in addressing unprecedented challenges to keep our operations running, our customers satisfied and our performance strong.

The progress we have made together in 2021 reinforces LDC’s leading position as a key industry participant for the future, while helping to ensure that this future is built on foundations of both financial strength and a long-term perspective, for the benefit of current and future generations.

Michael Gelchie
Chief Executive Officer