From WATTAgNet:

Archer Daniels Midland Co. (ADM) has said it will launch a sustainable soy certification program in Brazil, with a focus on European buyers.

The program will include 120 of the 6,000 Brazilian producers growing soy for ADM, specifically targets the European Union, particularly the Netherlands.

Other companies in Brazil also are working to show their soybeans did not contribute to deforestation in the Amazon rainforest or employ slave labor. ADM said its program will expand in the coming years and likely will be launched in Paraguay as well.

In August 2014, the first loaded vessel departed ADM’s new export terminal in Barcarena, in the northern Brazilian state of Pará. The terminal is a significant addition to ADM’s expanding logistical network in Brazil, and offers an efficient pathway for the export of grain from the increasingly productive western and northern regions of the country.

This month, ADM reported quarterly profit higher than expected, but lower revenue. The favorable profits — $493 million, or 77 cents per share, up from $267 million, or 40 cents per share — were credited to strong oilseed crushing margins and robust global demand for soybean meal.

ADM also said this month that it is building a new feed premix plant in Zhangzhou, China, and a new feed plant in Glencoe, Minnesota.

And ADM said it will acquire complete ownership of North Star Shipping and Minmetal, which will enhance the company’s European origination and transportation network through the addition of export facilities at the Romanian Port of Constanta on the Black Sea.