South & Southeast Asia
Regional Success
All countries in the Region reported positive results, with earnings up 265% year-on-year, reflecting the strength of our regional business. Industrial asset utilization also remained strong, particularly for our Indonesian refineries and Australian gins.
Robust Grains & Oilseeds Results
The Grains & Oilseeds Platform delivered a positive net margin in every business line, particularly soft oils and palm. The team expanded market access to new customers in all products, strengthened relationships with key buyers, grew volumes (soybean meal in particular) in a very competitive market, while improving profitability and continuing to keep direct costs stable.
Leading in Cotton
Our cotton business performed exceptionally well in India, where we maintained our leading position as the largest international merchant and became the country’s biggest exporter. In Pakistan we achieved substantially higher crop volumes, while in Australia, our Namoi Cotton Marketing Alliance joint venture grew in market share.
James Zhou
Head of Asia
“Surmounting continued pandemic-related challenges, the Region secured very strong results in all platforms and markets during 2021. We invested in coffee, developed and expanded new business models in oilseeds, grains, palm and cotton, and continued to make positive impacts on the livelihoods of smallholder palm and coffee farmers. In the “new normal” ahead, we will continue driving customer-centricity and executing on LDC’s four-pillar strategy, leveraging innovation and embracing technology – such as digitalization, to ensure our resilience and continued leadership while shaping a sustainable future for agribusiness with all our stakeholders – our people, customers, investors, partners and governments in each market.”
More Regional Highlights
Freight delivered very strong results, successfully capturing record market volatility and increasing shipped volumes 10% year-on-year.
We entered into a 12-year charter for a newly built LNG dual-powered tanker to serve palm flows to East Africa, significantly improving operational control.
Our core sugar business performed relatively well, developing a quantitative tool to trade raw sugar more effectively in Southeast Asia. This good performance in raw sugar trading was complemented by strong origination margins in India and Australia.
Our refined sugar business faced risk from adverse conditions in container freight, which we mitigated by reducing open exposures and focusing on short-term demand.
We utilized coffee assets to increase processed volumes and successfully managed supply chains in volatile conditions, trading record volumes in India.
As part of our strategic plans to move further downstream and diversify revenue through value added products, we formed a joint venture with one of the world’s largest coffee packers, Instanta, to construct and operate an instant coffee plant in Vietnam.
Signed a joint venture agreement with coffee merchants Zephyr Japan to bring premium coffees to consumers in Japan, a fast-growing market for specialty coffees.
Made our first sales of RTRS-certified soybean meal in the Region, with discussions ongoing with key customers to explore supply shifts to certified products.
↑65%
growth in volume of Indian coffee purchased year-on-year
>50%
of regional suppliers have signed our new Code of Conduct for Coffee Suppliers
↑10%
year-on-year increase in shipping volumes in the Region
You may also be interested in
Innovation
We invested in new partnerships and technologies that are transforming food and agricultural production and increasing operational efficiencies across our business lines.
Grains & Oilseeds
Investment in assets, advances in sustainability efforts, strong performance in core merchandizing activities and valuable contributions from increasingly diversified product lines.
Cotton
As the market rebounded from Covid-19 shutdowns, leveraged risk management expertise and extensive asset network to advance LDC’s position as leading cotton merchandizer globally.