Cargill flagged a revival in its operations, including a return to profit by its financial investment businesses, despite reporting a 65% slump in first-quarter earnings.

The agribusiness giant said that the drop to $525m in earnings for the June-to-August period, compared with a record $1.49bn a year before, reflected a "sizeable decline" in the contribution from Mosaic, the fertilizer group in which Cargill has a 64% stake.

"Our business unit earnings were broad based, and they were up considerably from the final two quarters of fiscal 2009," Greg Page, the Cargill chairman and chief executive, said.

"Cargill posted a solid quarter. All this makes us optimistic about Cargill's ability to grow."

Winners and losers

Earnings at the agriculture services and food ingredients divisions rose year on year, thanks to lower commodity prices, as well as a cut in operating costs.

The risk management and financial division, which struggled during the credit crunch, saw results improve "significantly" thanks to a return to profit in financial investment subsidiaries.

However, earnings in origination and processing fell, besides the "substantial" decline in the performance of Cargill's industrial unit, which includes the stake in Mosaic, which last week reported a 92% slump in earnings.