Global trading group Louis Dreyfus Commodities B.V. posted a sharp drop in net profit for 2013 after a U.S. drought disrupted grain markets and as sugar and other soft commodities were hit by oversupply.
Net income for the full year fell to $640 million from a record $970 million in 2012, the group said in a results statement on Wednesday.
The worst drought in half a century in the United States in 2012 curbed global grain output the following year and sent prices soaring, cutting volumes and processing margins for traders such as Louis Dreyfus that do business all along the agricultural supply chain.