By Karen E. Thuermer, AJOT Cargill, Inc. is one big bulk shipper. Headquartered in Minneapolis, MN, the company often flip flops between being the largest or second largest company in the world next to Koch Industries. It recently ranked 13th on the Fortune 500 list. In Fiscal Year 2011, Cargill reported having $119.5 billion in sales and other revenues. That year earnings from continuing operations were $2.69 billion. The company covers a literally a cornucopia of products. Cargill’s diversified products include grain, cotton, sugar, petroleum, processed food, health and pharmaceutical products, animal feed, agrochemicals, biofuels, oils and lubricants, starches and salt. “We do anything from infant formula to foam in car seats and mattress,” says Josh Murphy, transportation and logistics leader at the company’s Gainesville, GA division. There he represents Cargill Dressings, Sauces & Oils, which, he says, is one of 70 Cargill businesses worldwide. “We also have a huge meat division that supplies steaks to restaurants around the world and most retail stores,” he adds. The company is involved in financial trading and futures brokering. Its Excel unit is one of the top U.S. meatpackers. Brand names include Diamond Crystal salt, Gerkens cocoa, Honeysuckle White poultry, Sterling Silver meats and Nutrena dog and cat food. The company is also the second largest meat packer in the United States after Tyson Foods. Besides owning various beef and poultry operations, including turkeys and eggs, the company owns Wisepack Transport, a refrigerated trucking company which transports products for Empack Foods – its meat processing company, and Wisconsin products across the United States. Cargill is one of the top U.S. grain producers and one of the largest suppliers of grains in the world. It is the world’s second largest supplier of animal feed and the second largest supplier for food and industrial starches. The company is very private. But Murphy explains that as a network, half of Cargill’s employees are in North America. “The other half are in developing countries around the world in 66 countries,” he says. “The footprint of our division is worldwide.” Supply Chain Network. During a Logistics Summit held in Atlanta, GA, in May, Murphy emphasized how Cargill is very involved in supply chain network. “The company contracts to move a lot of grain across the world,” he said. Cargill ships other commodities as well, such as soybeans and sugar from Brazil; palm oil from Indonesia; cotton from Asia, Africa, Australia, and the U.S. South; beef from Argentina, Australia and the U.S. Great Plains; and salt from all over North America, Australia, and Venezuela. A recent article in Forbes magazine describes how Cargill owns and operates nearly 1,000 river barges and charters 350 oceangoing vessels that call on some 6,000 ports globally. This ranks it among the world’s biggest bulk shippers of commodities. The article further pointed out how sometimes the same ship that picks up a load of soybeans at Cargill’s deepwater Amazon port in Santarem, Brazil, after unloading in Shanghai, will carry coal from Australia to Japan before rinsing out its holds and returning to Brazil for more beans. “ In fact, Cargill’s ocean-transport business moves more coal and iron ore for third parties than it does foodstuffs, oils, and animal feeds for itself, by a factor of two,” it says. The article goes on to outline how by stimulating new markets, the company is able to open new trade routes, match producers and consumers, and ensure steady flows of agricultural commodities in a changing global environment. Murphy is primarily responsible for the transportation and logistics of soybean and vegetable oils. “We have crush facilities that supply us,” he says. “But we also get oils from around the world, particularly Malaysia.” Three years ago, the Cargill Dressings, Sauces & Oils underwent consolidation, which resulted in the division’s operations being