ST. LOUIS 鈥 Agriculture trader Cargill, which has a grain facility in East 51黑料, said this week it is laying off 5% of its global workforce, or about 8,000 employees companywide.
The company would not say how many local employees will lose their jobs.
Cargill has facilities in East 51黑料 and Columbia, Missouri, plus in Kansas City and along the Mississippi River in Florence and Meredosia, Illinois, about 100 miles north of 51黑料.
In an email statement to the Post-Dispatch Tuesday, Cargill company spokesperson April Nelson said Cargill is realigning its talent and resources to 鈥渆volve and strengthen鈥 its portfolio.
鈥淯nfortunately, that means reducing our global workforce by approximately five percent,鈥 the statement reads. 鈥淭his difficult decision was not made lightly. We will lean on our core value of putting people first as we support our colleagues during this transition.鈥
People are also reading…
Cargill is a Minnesota-based food trader and producer that distributes things like grains, meats and oilseeds around the world. It reported revenue of $160 billion in its 2024 annual report, down from the year before. The company has more than 160,000 workers worldwide.
A Cargill bucket elevator is framed in the Gateway Arch as it unloads grain to be elevated to its East 51黑料 plant on Wednesday, Dec. 4, 2024. The agriculture trader announced cuts this week to about 8,000 employees companywide. It is unknown how many workers could be affected in the East 51黑料 plant, located on Front Street near the bank of the Mississippi River.
recently named Cargill the country鈥檚 biggest private company for the fourth year in a row.
Cargill operates a grain elevator in East 51黑料 on Front Street, but company spokesperson Nelson would not say how many local workers worked there.
Rick Stubblefield, director of economic development at St. Clair County, said Tuesday he had not heard of anything about East 51黑料 Cargill layoffs.
A spokesperson for the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity said Tuesday that the department has not yet been notified by Cargill. Companies are required by law to notify the state when they plan to lay off workers.
These cuts comes as the agriculture industry continues to face thanks to weak demand and heightened global competition. Cargill is also grappling with the continued , which is increasing costs and shrinking supply.
Every generation has added something new to Tenderloin Farms, just outside of Edwardsville, Illinois. For sisters Kim Hansen and Kris Straub, the something new is lavender. The sisters have been working on cultivating the sweet-smelling, popular purple-flowering plant since 2014, and have put in hours of research to bring their dream to life. They opened their U-Pick Lavender patch and barn-turned-lavender-store for the first time on June 4, 2021.
