"Starving Amid War, but a Feast Behind the Scenes: Where the Real Party Happens [Delicious Story]"

Cargill, the World's Largest Global Grain Major
Expanding from Flour and Feed to Fruit Concentrates
Stabilizing the Highly Volatile Grain Market

Editor's NoteThe earliest snacks are believed to have been discovered in the ancient Mesopotamian civilization. In other words, snacks have accompanied every moment of human history. From biscuits to chocolate to ice cream, we bring you delicious stories behind the treats we love.

The aftermath of U.S. and Israeli airstrikes on Iran is expected to affect food prices as well. Disruptions in the supply of fertilizers, a key petrochemical product, are likely to impact grains, animal feed, and meat.

While this is a loss for most people who rely on rice, bread, and meat to live, there are companies that profit immensely when grain prices surge. The most notable among them is "Cargill," the world's largest grain major.

The World's Number One Company Dominating the Human Food Supply

The exterior view of Cargill's U.S. headquarters, which has been in operation for over a century. Cargill website

From corn and wheat to rice and animal feed for chickens and cattle, the global grain industry is a battleground for multinational giants. Roughly 75% of the global grain market is dominated by the so-called "ABCD" majors—Archer Daniels Midland, Bunge, Cargill, and Louis Dreyfus Company—with the largest of these being Cargill of the United States.

Founded by the Cargill family in the mid-19th century, Cargill has operated as a privately held company for over 150 years. This means that ordinary individual investors have no opportunity to invest in the company. According to its business report, Cargill posted sales of $160 billion (about 235 trillion won) in 2024 and employs approximately 155,000 people worldwide. In South Korea, Cargill supplies compound feed to livestock farms and has established itself as a key player in the domestic chicken market.

From Flour to Beverages to Chocolate—A Hand in Everything

Cargill is involved in almost all processed foods we consume. Cargill website

Cargill began as a grain storage company in Iowa, a region famous as the breadbasket of America. At the time, grain storage was an innovative business in the U.S., as it allowed the timing of harvest shipments and sales to be controlled through silos. Cargill expanded its business alongside American agricultural exports, investing in gigantic grain terminals and elevators, and grew into a massive corporation.

Today, Cargill extends its reach far beyond simple grains, touching almost every food product consumed by people. The company directly purchases grain raw materials from farmers and processes them into flour, and provides juice concentrates made from pressed fruit to beverage companies. Cargill also handles cocoa for chocolate, plant-based ingredients extracted for cosmetics, and biofuels made from grain oils.

AI Technology That Scrapes Meat From Cattle Bones

Gigantic grain terminal structure of Cargill. YouTube capture

Although Cargill's business improves when food prices rise, it cannot simply be dismissed as a "malicious company that blocks the arteries of the food industry and exploits profits." Thanks to Cargill's massive investments and innovations in the grain business, agricultural productivity for humanity as a whole has also improved.

Today, Cargill's core focus is the agricultural and livestock data industry. Cargill employees monitor major global breadbaskets using satellite imagery and help farms manage crop yields by predicting weather and precipitation. In addition, Cargill trades financialized food commodities—such as wheat, soybeans, seeds, chicken, and beef—in the futures market to generate profits from price differences, while also working to curb drastic volatility in grain prices.

Cargill is also contributing to improvements in meat yield. According to the Financial Times (FT), Cargill has introduced a new process called "Carve" to North American beef processing plants. This process uses artificial intelligence (AI) computer vision to precisely detect and scrape meat left between bones and fat, maximizing the amount of meat obtained from each animal. Since implementing the Carve process, Cargill has been able to produce an additional $200 million (about 300 billion won) worth of meat annually.

Cargill's influence on the food industry is expected to grow even further. As global factors such as climate change and war introduce more uncertainty, threats to global agriculture and livestock industries are also increasing. This highlights the importance of Cargill's capabilities in optimizing the entire process, from crop growth to distribution and processing.

In this context, Cargill received the "2026 BIG Innovation Award" this January, hosted by the Business Intelligence Group (BIG). BIG stated that Cargill "has addressed global challenges in the food industry by leveraging automation, robotics, and AI-powered predictive analytics," and commended the company for "innovative strategies such as the Carve technology, which minimizes beef waste, and port optimization technologies that maximize distribution ROI, all of which are being pursued in-depth to address food security crises, climate change, and labor shortages."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.