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Page added on October 8, 2014
Land O’ Lakes CEO: Food and agriculture will be the growth industry of our generation
Move over, Silicon Valley. According to Land O’ Lakes CEO Chris Policinski, the high-growth industry of the future is food production.
“We operate in what I think is the best growth industry of our generation. There might be someone here who disagrees with me if you’re in consumer electronics,” Chris Policinski told a crowd at the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce’s annual business conference in downtown Minneapolis on Wednesday.
The company’s most recent quarterly statement reflects his optimism. The Arden Hills-based dairy and agricultural cooperative ended its second quarter of 2014 on June 30 with a 27 percent increase in profits over the same period in the prior year, and a 6 percent bump in sales. From a longer perspective, the company’s sales have doubled in the last eight years, climbing from $7 billion in 2005 to $14.2 billion in 2013. Policinski said the company aspires to double its sales again in years to come.
Policinski pinned his hopes on two trends: Global population growth and rising incomes in emerging markets, particularly in Asia where the newly minted middle class is adding more protein to its diet. The world population is projected to grow from 7 billion to over 9 billion, he said, and food production will have to increase by nearly 70 percent between now and 2050 to feed them all. That will be no small task with a finite amount of land and a dwindling supply of water.
What may seem like a daunting problem to some is an opportunity for Land O’ Lakes, Policinski said. The company has a portfolio that runs the gamut from farm to table: Land O’ Lakes sells crop input and livestock feed that will help spur greater production, and it also makes branded foods, like its signature butter.
“We think this end- to-end view of the food industry is competitive advantage,” he said.
2 Comments on "Land O’ Lakes CEO: Food and agriculture will be the growth industry of our generation"
Makati1 on Wed, 8th Oct 2014 9:20 pm
The “food industry” is about to get it’s legs kicked out from under it when/if the world economy crashes, as it appears to be doing now and gathering speed. No more shipping megatons of GMO ‘food’ across the world at reasonable prices. Not even across the US. 47+ million on food stamps, and another 47+ million to come in the next few years. Another 100+ million living off the USSA government dole. LMAO
True, farming will become the center of production, but not for the reasons the above 1%er gives. It will be subsistence farming, with, if you are lucky, some extra to trade for cloth or a pair of homemade boots.
Davy on Thu, 9th Oct 2014 6:58 am
Big Food as big business will continue to promote BAU. In the food industry the processed side of the food sector is where the money is and the lowest nutritional value per dollar/calorie. This side is the biggest source of food energy waste. This high energy content and the wasteful distribution component will increasingly pressure this sector. Consumers just can’t afford much more. The portions are already shrinking in a marketing effort to hide food inflation. This shrinking can only go on so long in a finite world before there is doll house sized food portions. The packaging and the whole marketing effort behind food is a huge energy sink. There is no nutritional value in advertisements. Food is going local, seasonal, and reduced quantity. Without FF the quantity and choice of food will drop dramatically. In Asia we will see out right famine in a region obscenely in overshoot to carrying capacity. In North and South America we will see serious food insecurity especially in the mega population corridors and poorly placed population centers far from prime food producing regions. The oceans are being fished out and aquifers pumped dry. Locally we will see emptying grocery stores shelves. If the process is swift enough this could be the breaking point. If the duration and degree is mild enough we may see some sustainability and resilience get built into the system in prime locations. The critical part is the transition. Currently very few locations have the necessary carrying capacity to switch quickly. What good are vast monocultures of the bread basket regions in a swift transition away for BAU food manufacturing and distribution? Time is the key element to hunger. Folks get some long shelf life food to tie you over for a month.