Agriculture Traders Feel Pain as Plentiful Harvests Persist
- Subdued markets mean it’s tougher to make money from trading
- Agriculture firms are responding by shrinking trading desks
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The era of excess in agriculture is squeezing traders dry.
Years of bumper grain harvests, coupled with low prices and diminished volatility in many markets, are making it tougher for the world’s biggest agriculture companies to make money buying and selling major crops like wheat, corn and soybeans. Now, firms including U.S. processor Archer-Daniels-Midlands Co. and Chinese food giant Cofco Corp. are restructuring or scaling back their ambitions.