Tuesday, May 6, 2008
It's Not JUST Oil Companies Making A "Killing" - Multinationals making billions in profit from food crisis
Multinationals making billions in profit from food crisis
World Development Movement director calls earnings ‘immoral’
Giant agri-businesses are enjoying soaring profits as a result of the world food crisis that is driving millions of people towards starvation, British newspaper The Independent reported on Sunday.The report quotes World Bank figures that 100 million more people are facing severe hunger this year, saying that some of the world’s richest food companies are making record profits.
Monsanto reported last month that its net income for the three months up to the end of February 2008 had more than doubled from the same period in 2007 — from $543 million to $1.12 billion.
Cargill’s net earnings soared by 86 percent from $553 million to $1.030 billion over the same three months, and Archer Daniels Midland, one of the world’s largest agricultural processors of soy, corn and wheat, increased its net earnings by 42 percent in the first three months of this year, from $363 million to $517 million.
Similarly, the Mosaic Company, one of the world’s largest fertiliser companies, saw its income for the three months ending February 29 rise from $42.2 million to $520.8 million, on the back of a shortage of fertiliser. The prices of some kinds of fertiliser have more than tripled over the past year as demand has outstripped supply. The Food and Agriculture Organisation reports that 37 developing countries are in urgent need of food. Food riots have broken out in several nations.
Immoral: The report quotes World Development Movement Director Benedict Southworth as calling the escalating earnings and profits as ‘immoral’. daily times monitor
Source: Daily Times - Pakistan
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