Nutrien in January surprised investors by replacing its CEO for the second time in eight months. It then named Seitz, the head of its potash business, as interim CEO, replacing Mayo Schmidt.

Fertilizer companies are raking in profits due to sanctions against Russia and Belarus, the world’s second- and third-largest potash fertilizer suppliers after Canada.

Seitz expects those eastern European supplies to remain restricted into 2023.

“There are a lot of moving parts, but a lot of uncertainty in an environment where the demand for nutrients is growing,” he said in an interview.

Nutrien earned a record $3.6 billion in the second quarter, more than tripling profit from a year earlier.

The company is expanding its Canadian potash production by 20 per cent by 2025.

Rival BHP Group is building its first potash mine in Nutrien’s Canadian backyard and is open to taking on a partner. Seitz said his focus is on Nutrien’s business.

Asked about the turnover prior to his appointment, Seitz said he expected the company’s recent stability to continue.

“If you step back and look at the way we have been executing on our business, we’ve been doing that consistently,” he said.

Seitz joined Nutrien as executive vice-president in charge of potash operations in 2019. He previously led Canpotex, a potash export company owned by Nutrien and Mosaic Co.

— Reporting for Reuters by Arunima Kumar in Bangalore and Rod Nickel in Winnipeg.

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Although volumes in the U.S. agricultural commodities trader’s core agribusiness and its refined and specialty oils units were down, robust oilseed processing margins propelled the earnings beat for Bunge.

“We expect the favorable market trends to continue,” Chief Executive Officer Greg Heckman said.

Shares jumped about 3 percent in early trading.

St. Louis, Missouri-based Bunge now expects full-year adjusted income to be at least $11.50 per share, up from a previous outlook of at least $8.50 per share.

Bunge’s results offered the latest look into how the world’s largest grain traders navigated the coronavirus pandemic and the shifts it triggered in food and fuel demand as consumers cooked more meals at home and avoided unnecessary travel.

Bunge and rivals Cargill, Louis Dreyfus and ADM, which reported a third-quarter profit jump on Tuesday, are thriving as some pandemic restrictions have been lifted.

Adjusted profit in agribusiness, Bunge’s largest segment, rose 10 percent in the quarter while rising vegetable oils demand for producing renewable fuels helped more than double the refined and specialty oils unit’s profit.

Bunge expects strong vegoil demand to elevate earnings above baseline levels “for the next couple of years,” Heckman said.

Higher energy costs, however, may squeeze margins and could curb crushing rates in some regions, he said.

“We’ll pull back crush if margins get squeezed by the energies,” Heckman said.

Net income attributable to Bunge rose to $653 million, or $4.28 per share, in the quarter ended Sept. 30 from $262 million, or $1.84 per a share, a year earlier.

Adjusted earnings of $3.72 per share, up from $2.47 a year ago, topped the consensus estimate of $1.42, according to Refinitiv IBES.

Revenue totaled $14.12 billion, up from $10.16 billion a year earlier.

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The Chicago-based U.S. grains merchant is anticipating the favorable demand and margin environment to continue supporting results in the fourth quarter and foresees record annual earnings per share for a second straight year.

ADM’s latest results offered a glimpse into how the world’s largest grain traders are emerging from the COVID-19 pandemic that had triggered massive shifts in food and fuel demand as more people cooked at home and avoided unnecessary travel.

ADM and rival agribusinesses Bunge Ltd, Cargill Inc and Louis Dreyfus Co, known as the ABCD quartet of grain trading giants, are now benefiting from rising global demand for food and renewable fuel as some pandemic restrictions are easing.

Strong vegetable oil demand, including from renewable fuels makers, and favorable margins for crushing soybeans into meal and oil propelled a 42 percent profit jump for ADM’s agricultural services and oilseeds segment, its largest.

The gains came despite weak results from ag services, partly due to delayed exports from the Louisiana Gulf Coast, where terminals sat idle for weeks in September after Hurricane Ida wrecked the region’s power grid and damaged infrastructure.

ADM’s carbohydrate solutions unit, which includes its ethanol business, posted weaker earnings amid high corn prices, while results in its nutrition segment rose 20 percent.

ADM this week announced an agreement with Gevo Inc to produce up to 500 million gallons of sustainable aviation fuel. In August, ADM and Marathon formed a joint venture to make renewable diesel.

Net earnings attributable to ADM rose 134 percent to $526 million, or 93 cents per share, in the three months ended Sept. 30, from $225 million, or 40 cents per share, a year earlier.

Revenue rose to $20.34 billion from $15.13 billion.

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Refiners are on the hunt for secure access to feedstocks for renewable fuels amid supply constraints and soaring prices for fats, greases and oils.

A joint-venture soybean processing complex at Spiritwood, N.D., about 300 km south of Winkler, Man., is expected to produce about 600 million pounds of refined soybean oil annually, enough feedstock for about 75 million gallons of renewable diesel per year, when complete in 2023, the companies said.

That’s about 40 per cent of the feedstock needed to supply Marathon’s Dickinson, N.D., plant, which is designed to process about 180 million gallons of renewable diesel annually. Dickinson is about 340 km west of Spiritwood.

The soy crush plant, which ADM first announced in May, will now be majority-owned by ADM with a 75 per cent stake, while Marathon Petroleum will own the rest.

A growing number of refiners and renewable fuel producers, including Marathon, plan to ramp up green fuel production in the coming years, putting pressure on supply and feedstock prices.

ADM executive Ken Campbell said he believes renewable diesel demand may be as much as five billion gallons by 2025.

But Marathon called the soybean oil’s economics “challenged” because higher prices coupled with the relatively higher carbon intensity of the oil limits refiners’ ability to profit on production.

Margins to produce renewable diesel from soybean oil so far this quarter have averaged about US$1.35 per gallon, more than $1 lower than processing used cooking oil, according to data from Tudor, Pickering and Holt.

Carl Icahn’s CVR Energy put off plans to produce renewable fuels at its Wynnewood, Oklahoma, facility.

U.S. grain handler The Andersons also plans to supply more renewable diesel feedstock to Marathon, with which it has an existing joint venture in four ethanol plants.

— Reporting for Reuters by Arunima Kumar in Bangalore and Laura Sanicola in New York; additional reporting by Karl Plume.

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Corteva also announced a new $1.5 billion share repurchase program, in addition to a $1 billion buyback announced in 2019, which the company expects to complete by the end of 2021.

The company’s shares rose 3.7 percent to $43.00 in extended trade.

Last month, it increased its common stock dividend by 7.7 percent to 14 cents per share.

The company, spun off in 2019 after a merger of Dow Chemical and Dupont, has laid off employees and retired some assets to cut costs. Last month, it said Chief Executive Officer James Collins Jr will retire, months after activist investor Starboard Value LP sought to oust him.

Corteva forecast 2021 net sales between $15.2 billion and $15.4 billion, versus an earlier estimate of $14.6 billion to $14.8 billion. Analysts were expecting $14.82 billion, according to Refinitiv IBES.

Net sales rose 8.4 percent to $5.63 billion in the second quarter, surpassing an estimate of $5.33 billion, while total crop protection sales jumped about 12% to $1.85 billion due to demand for its new products including Arylex herbicide and Pyraxalt insecticide.

Seed sales rose 7 percent to $3.78 billion in the quarter thanks to increased soybean acreage in North America and higher volumes on the back of more normalized delivery timing in the region.

The Wilmington, Delaware-based company said operating earnings per share rose to $1.04 billion, or $1.40 per share, in the quarter ended June 30, from $944 million, or $1.26 per share, last year.

Analysts on average had expected a profit of $1.26 per share.

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The bigger-than-expected earnings sent shares to a two-week high and extended a recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, which last year hurt demand for the company’s ethanol and food products. Shares were up 1 percent at $59 at midday.

ADM and rivals Bunge Ltd, Cargill Inc and Louis Dreyfus – known as the ABCD quartet of grain trading giants – buy crops from farmers to process and export.

ADM’s exports jumped in the quarter ended June 30, driven by corn sales to China, the company said.

Chinese farmers have increased corn planting to cash in on demand-fueled record prices, though, a trend that is likely to cool imports, according to analysts. China’s soybean imports are also set to slow from a record first-half tally.

ADM’s core agricultural services and oilseeds unit, which includes exports, will still increase profit from last year, Chief Executive Juan Luciano told analysts on a conference call. The soybean crushing business is benefiting from strong vegetable oil demand and North American margins.

“That will drive the company to earnings that we never had before certainly,” Luciano said of the unit’s growth.

Strong demand from exporters and the animal feed sector have left supplies of U.S. corn, soybeans and wheat at their lowest levels in nearly a decade, sending prices to multi-year highs this spring.

The world is depending on massive U.S. corn harvests to offset shortfalls in Brazil, where drought and frost hurt farms.

Globally, farmers lost 15 million tonnes of crop production from unfavorable weather in the past two to three weeks, including a drought wrecking Canadian canola, Luciano said.

ADM’s net quarterly earnings rose to $1.26 per share from 84 cents last year. Adjusted earnings were $1.33 per share, topping analysts’ estimates for $1.03, according to Refinitiv IBES.

Revenue rose 40.8 percent to $22.92 billion, above estimates for $18.64 billion.

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Shares of Canopy, up 15 per cent this year, fell around 4.6 per cent to $36 after it announced the cash-and-stock deal for Supreme, which owns pot brands including 7Acres, Blissco and Sugarleaf. Shares of Toronto-based Supreme surged 50 per cent, to 40 cents.

The opening of more retail stores and a rise in weed use during the pandemic has brought back investor dollars for cannabis producers after years of underperformance. Hopes of U.S. reforms allowing cross-border commerce are also boosting investments in the sector.

Smiths Falls, Ont.-based Canopy will continue to push for a higher share of the Canadian market while it prepares for a U.S. entry, CEO David Klein told Reuters.

“We’re a Canadian company… we’re going to use Canada as that kind of solid home base for us to be able to then bring our capabilities and our brands into the U.S. market as it opens,” Klein said in an interview.

He also reiterated that the company is on track to turn profitable on an adjusted basis this year.

The Supreme deal makes Canopy the owner of four out of the top 10 cannabis brands in Canada, with an estimated 13.6 per cent of the total recreational market share in the country, the companies said.

The deal would give Canopy control of Supreme’s 440,000-square foot cannabis cultivation facility at Kincardine in western Ontario and a West Coast extraction and processing plant at Langley, B.C.

Under the deal’s terms, Supreme Cannabis shareholders will receive 0.01165872 of a Canopy common share and 0.01 cents in cash in exchange for each Supreme Cannabis share held.

Including debt, the deal is valued at $435 million. The two companies said they expect to close their deal by the end of June, pending the usual approvals such as from shareholders and regulators.

— Reporting for Reuters by Arunima Kumar and Shariq Khan in Bangalore. Includes files from Glacier FarmMedia Network staff.

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Bunge shares rose almost seven per cent to their highest level in more than a year.

The company raised full-year profit guidance for a second straight quarter, projecting 2020 earnings of $6.25 to $6.75 per share (all figures US$). The company cited better-than-anticipated agribusiness results and a more favourable outlook for its edible oils unit despite the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

“In our view, the team’s execution was nearly flawless this quarter,” CEO Greg Heckman said, adding that guidance was lifted “based on Q3 results and improving market trends.”

Grain traders such as Bunge and rivals Archer Daniels Midland, Cargill and Louis Dreyfus, known as the ABCDs of grain, have faced headwinds from the pandemic as shuttered restaurants and reduced travel disrupted demand for food and fuel. Infection rates are rising again globally, triggering fresh lockdowns and other restrictions.

But they have weathered the crisis better than other industries, and Bunge — whose Canadian businesses include oilseed crushing and processing and a joint stake in Prairie grain handler G3 — said its facilities continued to operate at or near normal levels.

Bunge agribusiness earnings more than doubled to $467 million on robust margins in South America, Europe and Asia and active grain sales by South American farmers. Edible oils performed better than expected, although results were down year-on-year.

Net attributable income to Bunge was $262 million, or $1.84 per share, for the third-quarter ended Sept. 30, compared with a loss of $1.49 billion, or $10.57 per share, a year earlier when Bunge took charges totaling about $1.7 billion.

On an adjusted basis, Bunge posted a profit of $2.47 per share, up from $1.28 per share a year earlier.

Net sales fell 1.6 per cent to $10.16 billion, but topped analysts’ estimates of $9.92 billion, according to Refinitiv IBES.

— Reporting for Reuters by Karl Plume in Chicago and Arunima Kumar in Bangalore.

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